Vengeance
by daretodream0902
Summary: It was rumored that Lord Voldemort killed Dorcas Meadowes personally. What did one witch do to attract the personal attention of the darkest wizard in history? She sought vengeance.
1. Chapter 1

"Dor, Dor!" A small child cried out when Dorcas entered the house, newly home from her last year at Hogwarts and the baby toddled over as fast as her chubby little legs would carry her. Dorcas scooped the child up, kissed both of her baby cheeks and smiled.

"Hey Amber, guess what?" Dorcas said, playing a game with the sweet little girl. She smiled and cooed, knowing what was coming next. "Amber, I _missed _you today!" she cried, and the little girl smiled and giggled.

Dorcas felt pudgy little baby fingers entwined in her hair, and the pieces pulled none too gently as they got caught on the stickiness on the baby's fingers. She took her own small hand and tugged gently on her sister's soft blonde curls.

"Excuse me miss, but I believe you have your own hair." Dorcas teased lightly, and Amber giggled again, this time intentionally pulling harder on her sister's hair, loving the attention it got her.

"Mine." Amber insisted, and Dorcas smiled and shook her head.

"Not yours silly, that hair is _mine._" Dorcas gently removed Amber's fingers from her hair, pressed the little hands together and kissed them. She snuggled Amber close to her. "You don't want my hair anyways baby, it's a boring old brown and yours is so pretty."

"Sissa pretty too." Amber protested, and Dorcas couldn't help but chuckle.

"Why thank you, that means a lot coming from the prettiest princess in the land." Dorcas declared grandly. "But you're a very lucky little girl, Amber. Most little girls don't get to have their name be the color of their hair."

Amber gently touched Dorcas' face. "I tell Mummy Dor home from school! Dor _home._"

Amber snuggled into her sister one last time before pushing away and attempting to run across the living room. She lost her balance and fell, and it took only a second before Dorcas was at her side, wiping the tears away with the pads of her thumbs.

"Shh, baby, it's okay." Dorcas comforted, before tickling Amber for a brief moment. The little girl laughed and tried to escape.

"Oh no you don't!" Dorcas cried, snatching her again and pinning her to the floor. Amber giggled loudly and Dorcas kissed her pudgy cheeks repeatedly until the tears were long forgotten.

* * *

"Seriously Meadowes, what's your problem?"

Dorcas ignored the tall, broad young man training to be an Auror with her. If Dorcas was interested in dating, she would have been hard pressed to deny that he was attractive. However, Dorcas didn't date.

Frequently, her parents would lecture her about her lack of social behavior and the fact that she never seemed happy. Dorcas argued back that she was fine; this was her personality, that she didn't _want _friends or a boyfriend.

They didn't like this answer.

They wanted her to try harder and to put in more effort, and while sometimes Dorcas did feel guilty for worrying them, usually she got over it rather quickly. She'd never been particularly close to them, and she knew they didn't understand her.

To be honest, most didn't.

"I don't have a problem Clark, do you?" Dorcas snapped back, and the young man named Clark laughed. Everyone was used to this behavior from Dorcas, she was usually quite grouchy.

"Honestly Meadowes, I've never met somebody as unhappy as you." Clark replied, knowing he was annoying Dorcas and pushing her buttons, but honestly it was just so fun. She rolled her eyes at him.

"You know Clark, if your opinion mattered at all to me that could hurt my feelings."

"C'mon Meadowes, come out with the guys after work today. We're gonna go down to the Hogs Head and grab a drink or two. It'll be good for ya. You never do anything fun." Clark looked at her imploringly, and Dorcas resisted the urge to laugh.

"Just because I don't include you in my fun Clark doesn't mean I don't have any. And you don't think all our training exercises are fun? I'm telling Moody." Dorcas said lightly as she walked away. Clark followed quickly behind her.

"Meadowes, I refuse to believe that you have fun until you at least tell me what you do for fun." Clark wasn't going away, and Dorcas sighed in annoyance. She turned to look at him.

"Seriously Clark, I think we have different definitions of fun. My evening has already been completely planned out. I promised my sister I would visit her by dinner so we would have enough time to have a tea party before she goes to bed. If you keep holding me up, there is going to be a very disappointed 4 year old at my parents' house. Satisfied?" Dorcas looked at him and saw a wide grin.

"Well then, if the fair lady already has a date I'll be going." Clark turned and walked away. Just before Dorcas was out of earshot he spun around and yelled to her. "Enjoy your tea Meadowes!"

"Stupid prat" Dorcas mumbled before climbing into one of the fireplaces and flooing to her parents' house. She stepped out of the fire and heard little footsteps coming quickly from the other room. Dorcas headed in that direction eagerly, ready for Amber's tea party.

It was the first time she smiled that day.

* * *

"Dorcas, I swear I honestly don't understand what's wrong with her. She refuses to talk to me; she absolutely insisted that you came over right away. I don't know what little girl refuses to talk to her own mother." Mrs. Meadowes looked at Dorcas' back. Her oldest daughter was walking ahead of her so her mother couldn't see her roll her eyes.

"Mum, it's not a big deal, I'm over here almost every day anyways to play with her, and dropping by this afternoon doesn't matter, especially if she wanted me." Dorcas said, and her voice had a light snap to it.

"Well I still don't understand. She's my daughter, not yours, aren't little girls supposed to want their Mummy?" Mrs. Meadowes sighed deeply and rubbed her temples. "She never does, anything goes wrong and she wants her Dor. Her primary school called me the other day, do you know that? They were concerned because her school forms looked like they had been filled out by Amber herself. Turns out she erased everything I wrote down and wrote down your number as her in case of emergency number!"

Dorcas tried very hard to stifle her laughter, but found it difficult. The child was simply too smart for her own good.

Her mother wasn't finished yet, and didn't find her daughter's smile the least bit amusing. "And then, when I asked her about it she said 'I just didn't want them to worry you Mummy. Dor is strong, she doesn't get worried.' Honestly, I don't know what I am going to do with that child."

Apparently her sister was a charmer too.

"Don't worry about it Mum, I'm going to talk to her. It'll be fine, I promise." Dorcas said, having finally arrived at Amber's bedroom door. She looked at her mother pointedly until she huffed and walked away. Dorcas knocked softly on Amber's bedroom door.

"GO AWAY MUMMY, I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU." Dorcas heard the little voice from inside and laughed under her breath. She couldn't let Amber hear her laughing, or the little girl would be too angry to tell her what was wrong.

"You don't want to talk to me?" Dorcas called back lightly. "I guess I'm just going to have to eat all of this ice cream I snuck past Mummy by myself then."

She could hear Amber scurrying over to the door, and braced herself. As soon as the door opened all the way, she barely had time to catch sight of the blonde curls before Amber launched herself at her.

"Dor, you came!" She cried happily, burying her face in her sister's hair and Dorcas smiled. Hair had always soothed Amber, braiding it and touching it had been a comfort to her ever since she had been a baby. She was still so small for her age sometimes Dorcas had to remind herself that she was almost 6 years old.

"Of course I came you silly little ladybug, why are you so surprised? Dorcas asked, walking into the room still holding Amber, and closed the door softly behind her. Amber pulled her head out of Dorcas' hair, but continued to stroke it with one small hand. Her big blue eyes were bloodshot, and the little thing looked exhausted.

"Well Mummy said that you are an Auror now, and your job makes you very tired and you probably didn't have any time to come and talk to a silly little girl." Amber told her, and Dorcas fought to keep herself from seething. She plastered on a fake smile and placed the little girl on her huge canopy bed. Dorcas had bought her the bed last year for her birthday, spending a whole month's paycheck on it but insisting that the prettiest princess in the land should have a beautiful princess bed.

"Mummy is silly." Dorcas said, taking the less is more approach. She would have to speak to her mother later about _that _later. "I always have time for my little ladybug. No matter what. Do you understand me?"

"Yep!" Amber replied happily. "I told Mummy that and she told me to stop talking back 'cause it's fresh and she's the grown up so she knows what she is talking 'bout." Amber now had her hand fully entwined in Dorcas' long hair, and she snuggled closer to her sister. "I missed you."

"I missed you too bug." Dorcas whispered softly and kissed Amber's forehead. "Now do you maybe want to tell me why you look so sad?"

Amber sighed, and a troubled look came over her little features. It made Dorcas want to punch a wall.

"Dor, do you think I'm pretty?" Amber asked, and even Dorcas couldn't hide the horror on her face. Wasn't she too young to be worried about this stuff? What happened to being a child? Amber looked away, embarrassed.

"Amber, look at me." Dorcas demanded, but she still refused. "I said look at me." She said again, softly grabbing Amber's face and turning it to face her. "You are the most beautiful little girl in the whole world, inside and out. I don't want you ever worrying about things like this, do you understand me? Who told you that you weren't pretty?"

"The other day on the playground Timmy Hodge told me I looked like his pet lizard." Amber said, her little face twisted with horror. Dorcas stifled her laughter. Amber wouldn't find it amusing, and laughing about such a _serious _matter would do far more harm than good. "I am not a lizard."

"Oh no, definitely not." Dorcas said, her voice very somber. "Do you want to hear a secret little one? One that most grownups don't even know?" Amber nodded eagerly.

"Well you have to promise not to tell." Dorcas said playfully, and Amber nodded solemnly. "Amber, when people say mean things to other people, it's because they don't think nice things about themselves. The things they say about other people are the things they secretly think everyone says about them."

Amber looked extremely satisfied with this answer, and Dorcas smiled.

"Do you know what that means?" Dorcas whispered, and Amber shook her head. "It really means that Timmy Hodges thinks that _he _looks like a lizard. Is that true?"

Amber immediately burst into a fit of giggles, nodding happily, and Dorcas tickled her just a little bit to encourage this.

"Dor, can I ask you a question?" Amber asked, and Dorcas nodded and gestured for her to go ahead. "Why did you leave to live someplace else? I miss you, and when I try to go to sleep at night and I want to rub someone's hair there is no one here for me to do that with!"

"I had to move out baby, because Dorcas is a grown up now and when people grow up they go to live by themselves." Dorcas explained carefully. She couldn't very well tell her little sister that as an Auror and secret Order member, she might as well be one big walking target. "And I bet that if you asked Mummy she would let you rub her hair while you fall asleep."

Amber crinkled her nose at that idea and Dorcas couldn't help but laugh.

"Mummy's hair is no good." Amber insisted. "Her hair is just like mine and I don't want that. You're so pretty Dor, and your hair is so soft. And it's a different color, which makes you special."

"Well, I think you're the most special little girl in the whole universe." Dorcas told her, and Amber gave her a toothy grin. "I have an idea. How about just this once you go put your jammies on and I'll stay and put you to bed. You can even rub my hair if you promise not to pull it all out on me like you used to do when you were a baby." Amber nodded aggressively, and Dorcas gently pushed her off the bed to go get changed.

Half an hour later, both girls were sound asleep on the big canopy bed.

* * *

Dorcas ducked quickly and only narrowly avoided the jet of lavender light that had been heading straight for her head. The color was so soft, so beautiful, that it was difficult to believe that the spell it carried could do any damage. Dorcas knew without a doubt however, that that particular spell would have done irreversible harm.

After all, Bellatrix dueled to kill.

Seething on the inside, but determined not to let it show, Dorcas shot a stunner straight toward Bellatrix's head. She laughed when she saw Bellatrix's hair catch on fire. She only barely dodged the spell Bellatrix shot at her in fury.

"Come on Bella, you know you've been needing a haircut anyways." Dorcas sniped, and she would've sworn she saw actual _steam _come out of Bellatrix's ears.

"Someday Meadowes, you're going to wish you learned how to treat your superiors with a little more respect." Bellatrix replied, and the two women continued their careful dance of shooting and dodging spells.

"Bella, I don't think that Dumbledore wants my respect. I mean, the greatest wizard in the world doesn't seem too concerned about that stuff." Dorcas quipped, and when she saw the fury behind the Crucio heading her way, she knew she was playing with fire.

"Meadowes, surely you're not this stupid." Bellatrix said, trying to maintain her composure, though it was obviously difficult for her. "You have to know what happens to the people who anger me."

"See Bella, your threats would work on me if I had anything I loved enough to be afraid for." Dorcas bluffed, but in her mind popped an image of the only thing she did care about. This is why she moved out. The distance was safer for Amber.

The battle was clearly winding down, and injured and dead were strewn everywhere. Bellatrix winced and grabbed her wand arm, before turning and looking Dorcas straight in the eye for the first time.

"Sadly, I gotta cut this short Meadowes. But don't worry, I _won't_ forget about you." Bellatrix spat on the ground at Dorcas' feet. "Everyone has something they love Meadowes. And I will find out what that is for you."

* * *

"Meadowes, if you don't start watching your damn back I am going to kill you myself just so some dirty, good for nothing Death Eater doesn't get the pleasure of doing it!"

Dorcas ducked slightly into her small cubicle in the Ministry's Auror office, naively trying to follow the idea that maybe if Mad Eye thought she didn't hear him, he would go away.

"You're kidding yourself if you think I am so old that you running from me and hiding in a cubicle is going to stop me from giving you an earful." Mad Eye informed her gruffly, carefully fitting himself into the cubicle with her. Dorcas sighed. She had hoped the lack of space would be enough to deter Mad Eye from chasing after her. As she thought it, even she knew it was ludicrous. Nothing deterred Moody when he wanted something.

"I know." Dorcas replied curtly, and Mad Eye nodded. This was more like his favorite cadet. Brash and to the point. Not a hider.

"Well then, you mind explaining to me what the _hell _was running through your mind when you decided to challenge Bellatrix Lestrange and taunt her the entire time you dueled? It's one thing to fight the best of the best Meadowes, especially as a rookie Auror. It's another to get distracted by a verbal sparring match!" Moody's eyes bore straight into Dorcas', and she stared right back, unflinching.

"Come on Mad Eye." She said, her voice displaying a tone of cockiness. "You know that even as a rookie I can hold my own against that sort of scum better than most of the people here in this office. And you also know that verbal sparring is part of my dueling style. There's no one easier to beat than a distracted opponent."

"That's exactly the problem Meadowes! If you want to duel a distracted Lestrange, that's _fine_. The problem comes when you let Lestrange distract you!" Mad Eye shook his head dismissively at the confused look Dorcas shot him. "Meadowes, I know you, I trained you. There is no one better at acting like they are invincible, at putting up the shield that will protect them from all the fighting."

Dorcas barely suppressed a grin. This was as close to complimenting Moody would ever come. He wasn't finished though.

"I also know you outside of this damn office Meadowes. It is my job to know everything about my cadets, and you're no different. And I am telling you right now that if you think that Bellatrix Black won't find out about that little sister of yours, you are the most delusional person I have ever met! So if you want to be reckless Meadowes, you be reckless with _yourself._ I won't have the blood of a little girl on my hands because my cadet was acting like an immature Hogwarts student!" Mad Eye growled, and Dorcas felt the blood begin to boil in her veins.

Before she knew it, or could consider the consequences or even the logistics of the small cubicle, Dorcas was on her feet, her rigid wand pressed to her mentor's throat.

If both Aurors weren't fighting raging tempers, the situation would have been almost comical. There was Mad Eye Moody, the craziest, toughest and least likely to take your shit Auror there had potentially ever been.

And standing in front of him, her small stature and slim frame completely eclipsed, was Dorcas Meadowes. She was reckless, headstrong, and terrifyingly talented with her wand. Her long hair was streaming down her back, rustling as if the wind was blowing. The papers Dorcas had been shuffling moments ago were on fire. She hadn't performed accidental magic in years.

"I would _never _jeopardize my sister." Dorcas snapped, and before she knew it, her wand was in Mad Eye's hand pointed at herself. She didn't even flinch at the sudden loss of control of the situation. "That little girl is my _whole world. _I will murder anyone who touches a single blonde curl."

"Well then, you might want to start thinking a little more before you speak. Because you just challenged Bellatrix Black to find the only thing you love. She now has a determination to find that little girl and do Merlin only knows what to her. And _you _are the one who proposed the bloody challenge." Mad Eye pointed out, shoving Dorcas' wand back at her chest. She sucked in a breath quickly, horrified at the truth he had just illuminated for her.

"She won't find her." Dorcas stated quickly. "I won't let her find Amber."

Mad Eye's mouth was in a grim line, and he shifted his weight from one leg to another. The horror still evident in Dorcas' eyes was all that he needed to know that he had gotten his point across.

"Well then, you had better start being a hell of a lot more careful." Mad Eye stated gruffly. "If not for your sister or yourself, then for me. I don't have the time or the energy to hunt down Lestrange for taking out my favorite cadet, do you hear me?"

Dorcas merely nodded.

Mad Eye growled and pushed himself roughly out of the cubicle, letting out a curse under his breath when his bad leg slammed against the side wall.

Dorcas' mouth set itself in a hard, straight line. Her eyes became expressionless and cold. As much as she didn't like it, Mad Eye was right. She had been reckless. And it wasn't going to cost her. It was going to cost Amber.

She picked up the only personal possession she had in the cubicle, a small muggle photograph in a simple black frame. In the picture, a toddler Amber was balanced precariously on a rock wall, holding a popsicle. Most of her face was dyed red from it, and her little white jumper had red streaks going all down it. She was giving the camera a toothy grin.

Before she could think about it, Dorcas pulled the picture out of the frame and tossed the frame in the trash. She carefully placed the photo in her back pocket, determined to take it home and hide it out of sight.

The way things were now, Amber was in danger.

So things were going to have to change.

**A/N: Hey everyone! If you made it this far, I would like to thank you for reading my story. Just another weird story from the recesses of my mind. This was clearly an introductory chapter, and the later chapters will get darker and more serious, just as a heads up.**

**Anyways, thanks again for reading and I would **_**really **_**appreciate it if you took the time to review! **


	2. Chapter 2

The alley was dark, and the only means Dorcas had of judging how close her opponent chasing her had gotten was by how close to target the spells were getting.

If the last spell that had singed the bottom of her robes was any indication, they were close.

To be honest, Dorcas didn't even know who was chasing her; all she knew was that they certainly weren't a friend. Being attacked from behind while walking alone in the dark didn't usually indicate good will or a desire to get to know a person better.

This wasn't the first time in the last few weeks that Dorcas had a _mishap _with Dark Magic while going about her everyday life. With the recent string of Death Eater attacks against the public, the Auror department was being scrutinized and shoved to the forefront, giving Dorcas a lot of unwanted attention.

She couldn't stand the fingers pointed at her or the whispers whenever she went out in Diagon Alley lately; she had always been very fond of her ability to fly under the radar.

Even with the extra attention from the media and public however, Dorcas couldn't understand why exactly she was receiving so much additional attention from the Death Eaters. Though some of her coworkers had been called a few nasty names and had some relatively harmless jinxes shot at them by those who disagreed with their stance against Voldemort, none of them had been openly _attacked, _especially not in the manner that Dorcas had.

She couldn't help but notice she was being attacked yet again right now.

Dorcas counted herself lucky as a rather powerful orange jinx that she didn't recognize and was pretty certain she didn't want to learn came so close to grazing her torso that she was certain she would have a mark there even though it didn't actually hit her.

She shouted a curse angrily in return, and swore under her breath when she realized that it wouldn't even be close to on the mark. Deciding that this was not the place for the fight, she turned and continued to weave quickly down the alley, looking for a more open and well lit location.

Surprisingly, the hexes coming from the person chasing her helped Dorcas by illuminating a turn off into an additional, slightly larger alley that led onto a well lit, if not wide, road. Dorcas turned sharply and the absence of spells being shot in her direction made her think that perhaps she had lost her attacker.

Just as she was about to turn around and search for the person who had been following her (the stupidity of this action hadn't quite sunk in yet), the wall behind her was blasted to pieces. Dorcas ducked, but didn't quite manage to evade all of the pieces of falling brick, and a rather large chunk stuck her head with force.

Ignoring the blinding pain and blinking repeatedly in an effort to regain control of the situation, Dorcas' vision managed to clear enough that she could at least _mostly _see. There was still some blood obscuring her vision (she was assuming that this blood was coming from the throbbing wound on her forehead and not some sort of internal bleeding), and Dorcas knew that even with her injury she was in better shape fighting on the street than she was in that black alley.

She heard another shout and turned sharply in the direction it came from, her self defense training from the Ministry kicking into full gear.

The figure in front of her was definitively male, if the height and broad shoulders were any indication. Even from this distance, Dorcas could tell that he was significantly larger than the average man, and considering the slight, petite frame of Dorcas, he would tower over her.

Dorcas narrowed her eyes in an attempt to get a clear view of his face, and he apparently noticed.

"Having trouble seeing there Meadowes?" The man had a dark, deep voice, and Dorcas tried not to be disconcerted that he knew her name. "Or is it just that you're not particularly bright?"

"Hey, in the battle between looks and brains, maybe I lost out a bit in the brains department." Dorcas quipped. "Though I reckon I'm still better off than you, not getting either. That must be bloody _awful._"

"Now, no need to get nasty." He said, but the dark undertone to his voice belied his true anger. "I guess I would be bitter too if all I had going for me was my filthy blood. Unfortunately, as a pureblood I wouldn't know the feeling."

"Blimey, you're pureblooded too?" Dorcas feigned surprise at the "revelation". "Well, that explains a lot. All those years of inbreeding were _bound _to take a toll on someone. Sorry you got the short end of that stick."

Dorcas wasn't sure if the next hex shot at her came so quickly and almost took her by surprise because of the anger behind it or if her reflexes were still off from the hit she took to the head. It was probably a combination of both.

Despite almost getting hit by that last hex, Dorcas felt better than she had since the beginning of this fight. She was finally back in her element when it came to fighting Dark Magic. Somewhere she could use biting words as a distraction, both taking out her opponent and having a little bit of fun at their expense.

Shooting a curse back in retaliation, Dorcas smiled when she saw it hit its mark dead on. The man's smile slid right off his face as his entire body was overcome with itches. He immediately dropped his wand to the ground and began scratching furiously at his skin.

Dorcas couldn't help but smile at the irony of him calling _her _stupid moments ago.

She summoned his wand with merely a verbal protest from her attacker. He appeared unable to stop itching long enough to even put up a semblance of a legitimate attack. His lack of self control and skill in battle was honestly appalling, and Dorcas wondered if whoever sent him really thought he had stood any chance at all against a trained Auror.

Using her own wand, Dorcas tied her attacker up in ropes and approached him quickly, eager to get a better look at his face. In the back of her mind she registered that Mad Eye would kill her if he saw her doing this right now, approaching a conscious attacker with no backup.

To be honest, Dorcas wasn't concerned. She highly doubted that this imbecile was capable of wandless magic. He was barely capable of doing magic with a wand. A Slytherin, no doubt.

Leaning close to his face, Dorcas' thought that he was a Slytherin was confirmed. She remembered this man, or more accurately, boy, from her years at Hogwarts. He had been sorted into Slytherin during her third year. She was a bit disconcerted, however, that she couldn't remember his name. Dorcas had memorized all of the powerful pureblooded families.

"What's your name?" Dorcas questioned, but he merely spat in her face. In response, Dorcas delivered a particularly vicious kick to his ribcage.

"I asked you a question." She stated simply, and prepared herself to kick him again before he waved her off, attempting to gather his breath to answer.

"Wilkes." He muttered simply, gasping. Dorcas gestured for a clarification. "Marius Wilkes."

Dorcas nodded simply, satisfied. That explained why she didn't know who he was. The Wilkes family, though pureblooded, was far from rich and powerful. They lived in extreme poverty now due to a sequence of extravagantly useless patrons who had meandered away the family fortune.

However, that still didn't explain how someone like Wilkes, who was neither extraordinarily talented nor from a powerful family, had managed to get an in with those currently running the Death Eaters. Dorcas yanked the sleeves of Wilkes' robes up, and was surprised to see no Dark Mark on his arm. If he wasn't a mercenary of Voldemort, then what was he doing here?

"Oi, Wilkes, if you're so pureblooded then why don't you have the mark of your beloved Lord yet? Or is the Wilkes family finally so hard up for cash that you've started taking dirty muggle money off the street and you just got me confused for an easy target?" Dorcas questioned sharply, and a look of complete disgust overtook Wilkes' features. He spat on the ground dangerously close to Dorcas.

Anger flooding her, Dorcas pushed Wilkes to the ground and stepped on his throat.

"Now, I thought you had already learned your lesson about spitting." Dorcas said sweetly, nudging his ribs none too gently with her foot. Wilkes winced. "Let me put it in plainer terms for you. Next time you spit at me, you're going to be spitting out teeth. Are we clear?"

Wilkes simply nodded.

"Good." Dorcas replied, smiling when she noticed that Wilkes was still squirming around on the ground in an effort to relieve himself of the itching. She saw her opening to find out what was going on, and she was going to take it.

"I'm feeling generous today." She informed Wilkes simply, and he eyed her warily. "How about we strike a little deal? You tell me why you tried to attack an Auror, and I'll take that itching curse off?"

Wilkes looked for a moment like he was going to resist her, and Dorcas scratched the side of her nose delicately and slowly, sighing dramatically at the relief it was giving her. That was all it took to break Wilkes. Dorcas couldn't help but think how pathetic he was.

"Fine." Wilkes said sharply. "I'll tell you, just please for Merlin's sake take this damn curse off." Dorcas waved her wand and the itching disappeared. Wilkes sighed in relief.

"Who are you working for?" Dorcas demanded, not even giving Wilkes a chance to speak of his own volition. "What were you going to get out of attacking me?"

"Honestly, you haven't figured it out Meadowes? Wilkes asked cockily, and Dorcas shot him a warning look. He adjusted his attitude immediately. "Voldemort sent me."

Dorcas looked at him, confused. If Voldemort had sent Wilkes to attack her, why didn't he have the Dark Mark? In fact, all of the people who had come after her recently had been without the Dark Mark. If these men were working for Voldemort, why hadn't they taken the symbol of allegiance?

"You're a challenge Meadowes." Wilkes responded to Dorcas' silent question. "A rite of passage or an initiation challenge. As you already pointed out, I'm not from one of the richer or more powerful pureblood families. So in order to be accepted as a Death Eater and finally stand a chance at elevating my position in life, I had to show a little ambition. I had to prove myself. As did all the other men who have tried to take you down over the past month of so."

"So, in order to join the Death Eaters a new member has to kill me?" Dorcas questioned, and Wilkes shook his head. "So if Voldemort doesn't want me dead, what does he want from me?"

"To torture you for information. It's not a secret that you are incredibly powerful, or that you hold important positions in both the Aurors and whatever group that stupid nitwit Dumbledore is running. Few single individuals have as much intel as you do, and all of them were considered dramatically more difficult to capture. Of course, that was before 3 people have been arrested and sentenced to life in Azkaban for attacking you. Surely I'm going to be the last one, not only because now you know the plan, but also because it is too dangerous. You are running through all of the Dark Lord's new recruits."

Though it now made much more sense why she in particular had been targeted recently, Dorcas now had a new confusion on her hands.

Admittedly, Dorcas had to agree it made sense why she was being attacked, but after the first few recruits had failed, if Voldemort had wanted her so badly, wouldn't he have sent a group of his more experienced Death Eaters after her? Though Dorcas liked to tell herself otherwise, it was doubtful she could take on Bellatrix, Malfoy and the Lestrange brothers all at once by herself.

Then again, Voldemort probably knew it was a long shot that he would be able to torture information out of Dorcas anyways. She had suffered through various encounters with other Death Eaters, and had even taken a Crucio from Bellatrix back when they first got out of school, but never had she shown the slightest inkling of giving up any of the invaluable information that she knew.

So not only would she be high risk to the Death Eaters attempting to capture her (Dorcas may not be able to win the fight against Malfoy, Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers, but she had no doubt she could inflict her fair share of damage), but she would be of little reward.

This train of thought couldn't help but bring Dorcas to the issue at hand. She wouldn't give up any information about her organizations, but Wilkes had apparently spilled everything he knew with only an itching hex used against him. Dorcas couldn't help but be suspicious about his motives for telling her the truth, even though she couldn't see any way that this could be a trap, unless they were trying to lure her into a false sense of security.

"That makes sense." Dorcas replied simply, nodding in understanding. "Now what I don't understand is why you just were all too willing to tell me all of that."

Wilkes laughed, and it was a soft kind of laugh, the kind filled with pain and a touch of madness.

"Look at it from my perspective Meadowes. My options are limited. Ultimately, I could go to Azkaban for attacking you and live out the rest of my miserable life there, or I could try and lie and escape and be killed by the Dark Lord for failing at the mission. The only plus side to either of these alternatives is that I'm _not _being given the option to carry on my pathetic family name and put another poor kid through the torture I've had to enjoy." Wilkes looked at Dorcas simply, and she almost felt sorry for the guy.

"So, if you hate your own existence so much Wilkes, why choose a slow, painful death in Azkaban over being murdered by Voldemort?" Dorcas questioned, and Wilkes laughed hollowly again.

"Oh Meadowes, I wish I could live with the naivety that you have." He said and Dorcas merely glared at him. "If you think my death at the hands of the Dark Lord would be any less slow and painful than one in Azkaban, you're deluding yourself. And also, as much as I may hate my life and myself, I feel no particular desire to die either. Going to Azkaban is the best means of preserving my own life."

Now it was Dorcas' turn to laugh.

"You're a Slytherin through and through I see." Dorcas responded. "Self preservation at all costs, even if the ultimate cost is your sanity."

"You hit the nail on the head. Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a stereotype." Wilkes replied quickly, and Dorcas couldn't help but realize she was almost chatting amiably with a man who had been attacking her moments before. She had to get her head back in the game. It was time to do her job.

"Come on Wilkes, up you go, time for Azkaban." Dorcas said cheerfully, and it felt only slightly forced. Wilkes was much too large for her to actually attempt to lift up manually, plus even she could admit it would be dangerous to get that close to him and would almost completely eliminate her upper hand. If in a struggle she lost her wand, Dorcas would be in a whole world of trouble. Muggle fighting had never been her strong point.

Levitating Wilkes back to the Ministry turned out to be harder than Dorcas would have imagined it to be. Firstly, she had to cast a Disillusionment charm on him (because it would be positively disastrous if they managed to have an entire battle in an alleyway and not get caught, but a Muggle saw her levitating him through the streets). Secondly, he was much larger than she anticipated, and the Disillusionment charm certainly wasn't helping her with judging how sharply she could take corners without him hitting his head off of a wall of some sort.

In the end, he let out more than one barely muffled groan during the 10 minute walk to a safe apparition spot.

Dorcas apparated the pair of them back to the Ministry, and wasn't actually the least bit surprised to find Mad Eye there, sitting at his desk, head in hands, analyzing evidence and possible strategies for future attacks. He was deeply engrossed, but in typical Mad Eye style, there was nothing he could be paying so much attention to that he didn't notice someone appearing out of thin air.

"Meadowes!" He barked. "I thought you took the night off for once." Dorcas gestured behind her with her head, wondering how Mad Eye hadn't noticed the large, bound man with her.

"A girl just can't walk home safely anymore these days." She quipped. "No matter what I do, I just keep making more and more Death Eater friends!"

Mad Eye was at her side in an instant, scanning her quickly for a potential injury. When he saw none, his attention turned to the man with her. The first thing he did was pull his sleeve up and notice the lack of Dark Mark.

"Meadowes, it appears all you have lately are wannabe Death Eaters. If you're gonna keep bringing them in, the least you could do is try to catch some of the real ones." Mad Eye replied, and Dorcas rolled her eyes.

"I would, but you see, it appears that I have become a right of initiation." Dorcas informed him, and Mad Eye looked at her quizzically. "Apparently to become a Death Eater these days, one of the requirements is capturing me and bringing me to Voldemort. I'm very popular."

Mad Eye laughed genuinely, and Dorcas wondered for a moment if she had ever seen him do that before.

"Well, that explains why the Death Eater numbers have been halted for the time being. Meadowes keeps capturing all the recruits before their dizziest daydreams can come true and they can kill Muggles for fun." Mad Eye said, and Dorcas fought to suppress a smile, because the topic really wasn't funny.

"I know, I know I'm ruining everyone's good time." When Dorcas spoke, the sarcasm was obvious in her voice. "What I don't understand is how many of them I have to stop before I am worthy of a full blown Death Eater. I mean, what does a girl have to do to get a good duel with Bellatrix these days? Is she that in demand?"

Mad Eye smirked and shot Dorcas a look that clearly told her to be careful what she wished for.

"Well don't just stand there girl." Mad Eye ordered her, back to business. "Get this pathetic excuse for a human off to Azkaban and then drag your sorry arse back here to finish your pile of paperwork."

"Yes sir." Dorcas replied, trying to keep a serious tone in her voice, and failing spectacularly. Mad Eye scoffed at the respectful name coming from his favorite recruit's voice. Dorcas turned, grabbed Wilkes by the arm and prepared to apparate them to Azkaban.

"Meadowes!" Mad Eye yelled at the last second, and Dorcas stopped on the spot. "Next time you get personally attacked, you're going to get escorted home every evening by your own personal detail of Aurors, so I suggest you start being a bit more careful. I won't have any other choice, I certainly don't have time to replace you."

Dorcas scowled as Mad Eye knew she would, and flipped him off as she apparated away.

* * *

Dorcas slowly but surely built up a reputation as one of the most dangerous duelers in the ministry. Within a month she brought in 3 previously unsuspected Death Eaters, and she could feel the pressure building on her.

She hardly ever got to go home anymore, never mind to visit Amber. Though it didn't feel that way, it was probably for the best. Dorcas was a dangerous person to be around these days.

After one particularly late night shift at the ministry, Mad Eye sent her home when he found her asleep standing up next to the most wanted board. She had been studying the faces, trying to think of a way to catch some of the more notorious Death Eaters.

It was also probably for the best that Dorcas had been sent home. She was exhausted, hadn't honestly slept in days, and she had to be up early in the morning. It was her first day off in months, and she had promised Amber she would take her out for the day.

Her plan was to get the little girl a pet owl. She was almost 7 now, and her reading and writing was finally good enough that she was able to send Dorcas letters with little assistance from their mother. Dorcas wanted to ensure that she would be able to write to her whenever she wanted, and her mother wouldn't have an excuse to delay their correspondence.

Amber was going to be so excited, but Dorcas knew her mother probably wouldn't be pleased. She thought that Amber's reliance on Dorcas was unhealthy, but Dorcas didn't think that was the case. Amber had been born in Dorcas' sixth year at Hogwarts, and in all honestly, Dorcas had practically raised the little girl. They had always had a close bond, and her mother was merely jealous. All Amber wanted was to be a carbon copy of Dorcas.

Dorcas sighed when she thought about how long it had honestly been since she had seen her sister face to face. If she had to guess, it had been about a month and a half, a far cry from the everyday visits they had in the not so distant past. Sure, they talked on the telephone a few times a week, but it wasn't the same. There was nothing like the feeling of a hug from her little arms, or her little lips kissing Dorcas' cheek.

The guilt washed over her when she remembered how upset Amber had seemed on the phone the night before. She missed Dorcas, and while the guilt for her seeming abandonment hurt Dorcas immensely, she couldn't convince herself it wasn't for the best.

This visit with Amber tomorrow was going to have to hold her over for a little while. The war was going in full swing, people were disappearing every day, and Dorcas knew she was on the short list. Not that many people could claim important positions in both the Auror Corps and the Order of the Phoenix.

The last thing on Earth Dorcas was going to do was risk Amber.

She might have been a damn good Auror, but even she wasn't stupid enough to think she was invincible.

But whenever Amber was involved, Dorcas had to be invincible. There was no other option. So Amber couldn't be involved.

Dorcas wasn't naïve enough to think she would never fall. The Aurors were a dying breed, and she was too feisty and reckless to think she was going to make it through.

She couldn't, however, bring herself to care.

**A/N: Please review !**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Please Review!**

Try as she might, Dorcas couldn't suppress the feelings of well, _excitement _as she moved quickly about her flat, getting ready to pick Amber up. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this happy about something.

She was less happy, however, about the fact that she had to apparate to her mother's house to pick up Amber. Apparition had never been a strong suit of hers, and she would have much preferred just to Floo over there, but that was entirely unacceptable to her mother, especially if she wasn't coming from the ministry.

Dorcas' mother was a muggleborn witch, but she had never been comfortable in the magical world. As soon as she had graduated Hogwarts, she had reverted back into the muggle world and married the only person she could have who could understand both of the worlds she came from, but also respect her decision to live as a muggle: a squib.

To this day she never used her magic, something that Dorcas had a lot of difficulty understanding. Even growing up practically muggle (she didn't consider her vague knowledge that magic was real a "magical" upbringing), Dorcas knew undoubtedly that her magic was an undeniable part of her. She couldn't have rejected it if she wanted to.

This of course, just gave her and her mother something different to disagree on. Dorcas was adamant that Amber not be raised the way she was; she was hoping to prevent the culture shock she herself had experienced when arriving at Hogwarts.

Her mother however, completely disagreed. She didn't want Amber around any magic at all, to the point that during one particularly nasty row she had told Dorcas that she wasn't even going to send her to Hogwarts. They didn't speak for weeks afterwards, but there was clearly a line drawn in the sand.

Despite this, Dorcas did everything she could to expose Amber to magic.

It was an unspoken fact that every time Dorcas picked Amber up she took her somewhere magical via a magical form of transportation. Her mother had, for a while, pretended not to know this in the hopes that if it wasn't mentioned outside of Dorcas' company, Amber would think it was all a figment of her imagination and forget about magic.

Amber was now far past the point where she would remember things from her childhood, and Mrs. Meadowes had all but given up preventing her from acknowledging magic. She just refused to be a part of her magical education.

That's how, despite the discomfort of Apparition, Dorcas knew Amber would be ecstatic that that was how they were getting to Diagon Alley that day. Amber loved it there, where all the magic in the air was practically palpable. Plus, it was the only place to purchase an owl.

However, Dorcas' excitement was marred a bit by anxiety for the day ahead. The wizarding world wasn't the safest place to be these days, especially considering Amber's entire existence was supposed to be as secret as possible. Dorcas wasn't ecstatic about taking her out in public around so much of the wizarding public, especially considering her own notoriety.

She tried to quell her anxiety, however, with the knowledge that she had picked this particular day at Diagon Alley for a reason. Hogwarts letters had gone out yesterday, which meant increased security in Diagon Alley today, for surely many parents were going to take their eager children to fetch their school supplies today. The increased number of people also comforted Dorcas, because with how hectic it was sure to be, there would be less attention placed on her.

Grabbing her knapsack off the table, Dorcas waved her wand to ensure her apartment was locked and her wards were up before apparating into the small alleyway near her parents' home. Considering her parents muggle lifestyle, Dorcas had placed wards around the entire house preventing _anyone_ from apparating in and out. An inconvenience for her which could mean safety in the long run.

In less than a minute, Dorcas found herself knocking on the door of the modest house she had called home for over 17 years. She couldn't help but think that perhaps she should have had a bit more of an emotional attachment to it, but all she saw in front of her was a building.

Her mother answered the door, and her expression seemed torn. She was happy to see her oldest daughter, who visited rarely and spent next to none of her time during those infrequent visits with her. However, this excitement couldn't overwhelm her distaste for magic, and even she wasn't naïve enough to convince herself that Amber wouldn't be exposed to any today.

"'ello Mum." Dorcas mumbled, stepping inside the house. "How're you doing today?"

"I'm well, thank you." Mrs. Meadowes said formally, turning on her heel to walk down the hall. Dorcas sighed to herself, wishing that magic around Amber wasn't such a point of contention between her mother and herself. It would make her life much easier.

"Amber tells me that you have been very busy at work lately." Mrs. Meadowes stated, almost as if it was a question, and Dorcas nodded in affirmation. "I know she is very excited for your outing today. She's changed her clothes at least 3 times, and got up at the crack of dawn this morning."

Dorcas smiled despite herself.

"I'm excited too." She replied, and watched as her mother's posture loosened considerably. "I haven't seen her in ages, I've just been working nonstop at the ministry lately because well, I don't know if you've noticed but the wizarding world isn't in such a good state right now. And people like me, well, we're in the limelight."

"I don't follow the wizarding world." Mrs. Meadowes said harshly, and Dorcas nodded simply, not wanting to start a fight right now. "I just hope you girls have a good day today regardless of anything that might be going on. Amber has been looking forward to today all week and I would hate for her to be disappointed."

"She won't be." Dorcas promised. "In fact, I think she is going to have a day beyond her wildest dreams."

Mrs. Meadowes looked only slightly suspicious of Dorcas' cryptic words, but continued walking into the kitchen. She stood behind the immaculate countertops stiffly for a moment, before grabbing a rag from the sink and beginning to wipe them down.

Dorcas couldn't help but feel awkward. Cleaning had always been the way her mother had released tension and discomfort. Seeing as she was the source of most of this discomfort, watching her mother clean had never made Dorcas feel particularly good.

The floorboards directly above Dorcas squeaked violently, and she felt the anticipation in her belly grow considerably. She could hear each of Amber's footsteps on the floor above in the old house, and barely resisted the urge to fidget in excitement.

The infrequent creaks on the floor told Dorcas that Amber definitely didn't know she was there yet, and was taking her time coming down the stairs, perhaps in an effort to kill time until Dorcas did in fact arrive.

"Muummmmmmmmm!" Dorcas heard Amber call down the stairs, and tried not to smirk at the whine she could hear in her sister's voice. Her mother rolled her eyes exasperatedly, giving Dorcas the impression that this was not the first time that this had happened today.

"Yes dear?" Mrs. Meadowes yelled back, the patience in her voice managing to disguise her eye roll. Dorcas continued with the effort to wipe the smirk off of her face, and continued to fail.

"Can you please tell me where my sparkly trainers are? I can't find them and the ones I have on now just _don't _look right." Amber's voice was serious, and the concern she had for her trainers was evident. This was clearly a very special day for her.

"They're under your bed! You'd know that if you cleaned your room every once in a while!" Mrs. Meadowes hollered back, any semblance of her patience gone, and Dorcas remembered her mentioning the many outfit changes Amber had already made this morning. Surely this wasn't the first time a conversation like this one had occurred that day. "Though I don't really see why it matters! Dorcas won't care what you look like!"

"Don't listen to her!" Dorcas called teasingly, momentarily forgetting that she wasn't supposed to be there yet. "I refuse to take you with me if you look anything less than your best!"

Suddenly, a large crash came from the floor above, and Dorcas winced with the realization that she had revealed herself. Heavy footsteps moved rapidly towards the staircase which let out about 3 feet to Dorcas' right, and knowing that Amber would appear at the bottom of those stairs momentarily, Dorcas turned to look for her.

The footsteps got louder and louder and before finally they ceased abruptly and were followed quickly by a loud bang. Dorcas sprang into action, launching herself up the stairs and catching a falling Amber quickly, but not before the sickening crunch of Amber's leg.

The little girl shrieked suddenly in pain, and Dorcas searched her robes pockets frantically for her wand so she could apparate Amber to St. Mungo's. Before she could find it however, Dorcas heard a sudden end in the screaming and her mother gasped from across the kitchen.

Looking down, Dorcas found herself surprised. Instead of the sickening break that Dorcas had seen moments before, Amber's leg was healed and perfectly straight. There wasn't even a mark indicating the break that had been there moments before.

Already knowing the answer, Dorcas turned to look at her mother questioningly, but Mrs. Meadowes shook her head indicating that she didn't heal the break. Despite the previous severity of the situation, Dorcas found herself beaming at the little girl in her arms.

Amber looked up at Dorcas, wiping the tears away from her eyes. Upon seeing Dorcas' smile, she mimicked her beam even though she was entirely unsure why her sister was so happy.

"Congratulations Amber!" Dorcas announced happily, and Amber tried to hide the confusion on her face in an attempt to appear not quite as young as she was. "You just performed your first accidental magic! You're a witch!"

Now Amber's beam was genuine, and she hugged Dorcas tightly before turning to glance at her mother, as if looking for confirmation that what her older sister had said was in fact true. Mrs. Meadowes nodded tersely, as if unsure if she was happy or upset about her daughter's magical ability.

"So does this mean that I get to go to Hogwarts like you Dorcas?" Amber questioned eagerly, and Dorcas nodded back cheerfully. This day had taken such a bright turn, and Dorcas couldn't remember the last time she had such a good day.

Amber jumped from Dorcas' lap and danced around the kitchen, not even slightly favoring her momentarily broken leg. Mrs. Meadowes smiled ruefully, a sad look in her eyes when she looked at her youngest daughter.

Dorcas couldn't suppress her own smile, even with the knowledge of the upset that her mother was feeling right now. Truthfully, Dorcas was even pleased with the way that her mother was handling Amber's first accidental magic. She was expecting a temper tantrum, or even a refusal to acknowledge it, but all in all Mrs. Meadowes was taking it all quite well.

"Well, I do believe that a little girl who performs her first magic does deserve a prize." Dorcas mock whispered excitedly to Amber, and the little girl clapped with delight.

"But only if she goes and changes her trainers and makes her bed." Dorcas added on with a slightly stern tone, and Amber merely nodded eagerly, no protest slipping from her small delicate mouth. She hurried up the stairs (though a bit more carefully this time), calling behind her that she would be _right _back.

"I suppose you are pleased." Mrs. Meadowes said to Dorcas, who was, quite honestly, unsure why she intentionally created the opportunity for this confrontation in the first place. It was rare that Dorcas felt the need to have a private moment with her mother, but even she knew that needed to talk after what just occurred.

"I'm very proud of Amber." Dorcas agreed, and Mrs. Meadowes huffed under her breath. "I am sorry, however, that you are upset. I know you didn't want this."

Her mother sighed, and ran her fingers through her slightly graying hair. Though still quite young by wizarding standards, Mrs. Meadowes hadn't had the easiest and least stressful of lives.

"No, I wish I could say I wasn't expecting it." Mrs. Meadowes said, and Dorcas couldn't stop the look of confusion that ran across her features. "Even I knew that she was magical from the day she was born. Just like with you. You both had an aura about you."

"Mum?" Dorcas said questioningly, and her mother lifted her head and met her eyes. "Why do you hate magic so much?"

"I don't hate magic." Mrs. Meadowes said simply. "I respect magic very much. It's just not my world. You _belong _in the magical world, despite my very best efforts to prevent it. I don't."

"Well then, why didn't you want me to embrace my magic?" Dorcas asked, and her mother sighed. "My magic is such a part of me; I couldn't imagine myself without it."

"I know." Her mother replied. "I didn't want you to embrace your magic for a very simple reason Dorcas. I was afraid. I'm not a part of the magical world by choice, and I knew the moment you were you would slip away from me."

"You were always such a _difficult _child." She continued, and Dorcas found herself completely engaged in what her mother had to say for the first time that she could ever remember. "Everything I said you had to question and prove to yourself. You didn't want friends, and you were never interested in my attention. There was absolutely nothing holding you to this house, to this family, and I knew the moment that you went off to Hogwarts you would be totally enraptured and it would never be the same. To you, I wouldn't stand a chance against an enchanting different world. For me to embrace your magic would have been me releasing the tentative hold I had on my only child."

"Mum, I hope you know I love you." Dorcas stated, and Mrs. Meadowes merely nodded in acknowledgement. "I love you, but I don't understand you. I don't think that we understand each other."

"No, I don't think so either." Mrs. Meadowes murmured, and Dorcas couldn't help but feel that this conversation was most definitely not finished.

"You're never going to lose Amber, Mum." Dorcas said, and looking at her mother, saw the tears in her eyes. "She loves you too."

"I know she does." Mrs. Meadowes replied. "I just can't stand the thought of having another daughter I can't relate to, that's part of a different world. Amber was my only hope. I know it's selfish that I hoped she wouldn't have magic because she wants it so badly, but I knew that she would be just like you and hold nothing back on her venture into the magical world. She's so like you in some ways Dorcas, that sometimes it is hard for me to remember that she is a different child."

"Oh, she's different all right." Dorcas replied, attempting to lighten the mood a bit and ease some of the burden on her mother. "I was never that cheerful."

Mrs. Meadowes laughed and shook her head. "No, you're right, you weren't. But she can just be so _moody _sometimes, and in that way I swear you are like her. I was never that moody as a hormonal teenager, never mind as a child!" Dorcas also laughed heartily.

At that moment Amber came back down the stairs, luckily with a bit more grace this time. However, as soon as she got to the bottom, she eyed her mother and sister both warily, not used to such public displays of happiness from the pair when in each other's company.

Still laughing, Dorcas went over and took Amber by the hand.

"How would you like to apparate to Diagon Alley and get a pet owl for the wizarding world's newest witch?" Dorcas whispered in Amber's ear, and the look of pure joy that overtook the child's face was worth more than anything in the world in Dorcas' opinion.

"AN OWL?" Amber shouted excitedly as Dorcas spun on the spot, and just before she disappeared, Dorcas caught the exasperated face of her mother, trying her best to hide the hints of a smile.

* * *

When Dorcas arrived at the Ministry for work the next morning, her cheerful demeanor was noticeable to anyone who knew the witch even slightly. She was even seen smiling at a few of her coworkers.

Arriving at her cubicle, Dorcas couldn't hide her shock when she saw what was on her desk. She had expected a few memos, which were, admittedly, there, but she didn't expect an actual letter.

She picked the envelope up carefully; even knowing that all the mail the Aurors received was scanned and checked beforehand for Dark Magic. Though not entirely sure why, all Dorcas knew was that something about this letter just wasn't right.

The parchment was heavy and expensive, the like of which Dorcas hadn't seen used for anything except for extravagant wedding invitations. The penmanship on the front was beautiful, a skill rarely taught in this day in age.

These clues all pointed towards one common sender: a wealthy pureblood.

Now convinced that the letter contained nothing good that Dorcas desired, she immediately dropped the envelope before she could touch anything inside. Clearly the envelope wasn't cursed, for it had made it this far, but Dorcas wasn't willing to be her safety that the contents weren't positively nasty.

Pulling out her wand, Dorcas pointed it at the envelope and murmured a charm to open it automatically, but not before putting a shield around the letter, preventing anything potentially dangerous inside from escaping into the office. Perhaps her desk would be destroyed, but a desk was an object and easily replaced. Aurors were not.

The letter unfolded itself dramatically, as if the sender knew that it would be opened by magic and orchestrated it. A single black rose petal fell out.

Dorcas leaned in closer to read the careful script written in what she could now see was blood red ink.

_Meadowes,_

_Sadly, I realized that we haven't had a chance to have one of our little chats recently. Not knowing when our next opportunity will be (though you'll pencil me in won't you?) I decided a letter was in order to update each other on the events of our lives. You seem to be slacking on maintaining our friendship lately._

_Personally, I'm offended that I wasn't invited on your little lunch date yesterday. I heard from multiple sources that you were having a marvelous time (you didn't think I would leave you unattended, did you?). I also heard you were accompanied by the most adorable child._

_I simply can't wait to meet her._

_All my love,_

"_Bella"_

With the end of the letter, a wizarding photograph fell through the shield and onto the floor.

In the picture, Dorcas and Amber were sitting outside the ice cream parlor, a small, pitch black owl in a cage on the table across from them.

Photo Amber was repeatedly blowing kisses, some to Dorcas and some to the owl. Every time the owl had a kiss blown in its direction, it hooted softly, and Dorcas threw her head back and laughed.

There were people watching her.

Somebody had gotten close enough to take a picture.

Bellatrix knew about Amber.

With that final realization, Dorcas turned to her wastebasket and promptly threw up.


	4. Chapter 4

_Auror Death Linked to Death Eaters_

_Today, Ministry officials released new information about the disappearance and subsequent murder of muggleborn Auror Andrew Clark. Clark was reported missing from his home by the Auror department last Tuesday, after inexplicably missing two days of work. His body was later dropped outside of the hidden entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Two muggles had to have their memories modified due to this incident._

_A representative for the Auror department told reporters today that Clark was believed to have been murdered by Death Eaters in an attempt to extract information about the Auror department. No specific Death Eaters have been named in connection to the incident, and the Ministry insists that this is an isolated incident unrelated to the general wizarding public._

* * *

Dorcas was beginning to wonder how much of her life she was going to spend battling with Death Eaters.

She had been on duty at Kings Cross earlier that day (the students left for Hogwarts that day, and where better for a Death Eater attack than a muggle tube station?), and had just been leaving to head back to the office when she got a Patronus from Mad Eye demanding that everyone get to a small muggle shopping center a few miles away.

It's easy to tell it's a bad day when the entire Auror department is outsmarted by Death Eaters.

Turns out, they had planted the "leaked" information about the attack on Kings Cross, knowing that the majority of the Aurors would subsequently be placed there. Then, with almost no Aurors patrolling the rest of London, they attacked.

Needless to say, Mad Eye was livid. More than one Auror had been found murdered in the past month (and not one person thought it was a coincidence they had both been muggleborn), and now there was an attack during broad daylight? It really instilled a lot of faith in the Ministry.

Now, everyone that worked for the Auror department was in that shopping center, actively battling the Death Eaters present in an attempt to capture as many of them as possible. Their success level was questionable at best.

Many members of the Order had also shown up, apparently summoned discreetly by either Mad Eye or Dumbledore. Good thing too, because the Aurors were getting to be outnumbered significantly by the arrival of more Death Eaters. Dorcas saw the familiar faces in the crowd as she hit people from behind with Stunning Curses, determined that even if she couldn't capture the Death Eaters, she could at least slow some of them down so that the Ministry could catch up with themselves again.

Just as a particularly small man crumpled to the ground at the hands of Dorcas (he didn't see her coming, and she didn't even attack this one from behind), she heard her name shouted from behind her.

Rounding quickly, Dorcas barely had time to cast a shield spell and protect herself from the curse that Bellatrix had thrown at her when she had her back turned. She quickly gave Gideon Prewitt a friendly nod in appreciation for his warning.

Bellatrix snarled, angry that her attempt had been thwarted.

"Bella, I'm flattered." Dorcas sniped immediately. "It's probably for the best that you finally acknowledged that my magic is so far superior to yours that you can only beat me with my back turned. Oh look, you couldn't even do it then."

"Are you sure it's in the best interest of your baby sister to taunt me Meadowes?" Bellatrix asked, and it took everything in Dorcas to keep her face impassive as the blood in her veins turned to ice.

"Now Bella, I know you're a few years older than me, but I didn't know you were going senile already. 'Cause you clearly have no idea what you're talking about." Dorcas responded, and Bellatrix cackled.

"Nice try Meadowes. That was quite the performance." The evil smirk on Bellatrix's face was disconcerting for more than one reason. Dorcas knew that with the smirk came the certainty that Bellatrix had certain knowledge of who Amber was, because she didn't bluff. Also, the vague familiarity of the smirk bothered her.

And everyone thought that Sirius inherited nothing from the Black family.

"I don't know what you think you know Lestrange." Dorcas said coldly. Though Bellatrix undoubtedly knew more than was ideal, considering that Dorcas wanted her to know absolutely nothing about Amber, Dorcas still wasn't confident that she knew everything. And Dorcas certainly wasn't going to tell her anything she didn't know.

"You can give it up now Meadowes." Bellatrix replied. "Your buddy Clark and I had a lovely little chat the other day. For a while there, he was quite the Gryffindor. Rather take a Crucio than tell me anything about you. When it was his mum taking the Crucio though, he was a little more keen to talk."

Dorcas felt physically sick when the various conversations she had with Clark about Amber over the years flew through her mind. He had always shown a casual interest in Dorcas' life, even after she rejected his advances.

Though undoubtedly angry, Dorcas knew it would be hypocritical for her to blame Clark for the knowledge Bellatrix now possessed. After all, she wasn't even that close to her mum, but if it had been her screaming there was little doubt she would spill secrets of a casual acquaintance.

Sometimes she wondered if she should have been a Slytherin, and then she realized that none of her actions were for self preservation, but the preservation of others.

It shouldn't be comforting that she would only betray people to save someone she loved, not herself, but it still was.

"So you're the one responsible for what happened to Clark?" Dorcas asked, and Bellatrix got a proud glint in her eye.

"Sadly, I can't claim credit for the final moments of the stupid mudblood." She replied, and Dorcas felt her blood boil. It was sick that someone could take so much pleasure in the death of another human being. "He was much easier to catch and get information out of than you were Meadowes. The Dark Lord was pleased to add another faithful follower to his ranks."

"You'd better be careful then Bella, wouldn't want to be replaced." Dorcas prodded, knowing that she was hitting perhaps the only sensitive spot that Bellatrix had. "Please tell me this recruit is a pureblooded male. Merlin knows they're more useful than the females anyways, right? Aren't you just supposed to look pretty and have little incestuous, pureblooded babies Bella? Not doing a very good job are we?"

Bellatrix made a growling noise in the back of her throat, and Dorcas tried to resist the urge to laugh. It wasn't appropriate.

"Now now Meadowes, don't be rude. At least my babies would be magical. Please tell me, when a mudblood and a squib have a baby, what are the odds it will have any magic at all? And when it inevitably doesn't, would that make it just a muggle or a squib Meadowes? This should be your area of expertise. What would _you _consider that sister of yours?" Bellatrix taunted.

Dorcas repressed the urge to snipe back at her, because that would be exactly what she wanted. It was well known that Dorcas in particular had never taken taunts about squibs and mudbloods well, simply out of loyalty to her parents.

Those had been the only taunts that had warranted a response from Dorcas in Hogwarts. Only a few students made them before their subsequent stays in the Hospital Wing became infamous.

"Speaking of sisters Bella, how is that sister of yours?" Dorcas knew she was toeing the line with this one. "I saw Andromeda the other day, she looks well. You two always did look so much alike, but Andy is much more beautiful now. Probably had something to do with having a soul. Does wonders for the complexion."

Bellatrix seethed.

"You know what's truly amazing though Bella?" Dorcas posed her question loftily, knowing that this next moment was going to be one she would want to remember forever, but that also had to be presented properly for the maximum effect. "Have you by any chance met your niece? Surely you've heard that she's a metamorphmagus, right? Isn't that amazing? She's a half-blood, and a _metamorphmagus_. That's incredibly rare. Her father is nothing more than that filthy muggle who stole Andromeda away from you. If you're such a powerful pureblood Bella, why aren't _you _a metamorphmagus?"

Bellatrix had no verbal response, but instead began shouting an angry stream of hexes in Dorcas' general direction. Her fury had thrown off her aim, and none of the hexes even came close to making contact with Dorcas. Though a Death Eater behind her to the right did spontaneously erupt with a nasty case of boils on his face.

Dorcas felt a bit of relief when she realized exactly how much she had infuriated Bellatrix. Now that she was angry, she wasn't likely to want to banter anymore, and with the topic of Amber still hanging in the air, Dorcas didn't particularly want to either.

With the rapid succession of spells Bellatrix was shooting at Dorcas, it was all she could do to cast shield spells and dodge them all in time, never mind cast spells of her own in retaliation.

Dorcas was infuriated with herself. Never before had she been so totally and undoubtedly outmatched during a duel. She didn't have time for this.

Dorcas decided that so long as the next hex for Bellatrix's wand wasn't green, she was just going to take it in order to make an opening for her to cast her own spell in retaliation. It was risky, but Dorcas wouldn't let the battle continue the way it was going.

Dropping her shield charm, Dorcas took the purple charm flying towards her right on the arm. Instantly, the pain was so overwhelming that she bit her lip until it bled, just to not give Bellatrix the pleasure of hearing her scream. Glancing down quickly, Dorcas noted that she could see bone.

Ignoring the blinding pain in her arm, Dorcas discreetly shot a spell at Bellatrix's feet, knowing that she stood a chance at taking the older witch out if she took advantage of this exact moment.

Bellatrix was too busy cackling with glee over having hit Dorcas to pay close attention to the way she was doubled over, supposedly in pain. The hex flew towards Bellatrix's feet, hitting their mark exactly.

She tripped immediately, and Dorcas took advantage of her opening and summoned Bellatrix's wand, disarming her.

The look of shock on Bellatrix's face was one that Dorcas would sincerely like to remember forever.

With a shriek unlike one that Dorcas had ever heard in her entire life, Bellatrix attracted the attention of every Death Eater in the shopping center. All dueling seemed to cease momentarily, as every eye focused on Dorcas and Bellatrix.

The calm was only momentary however, before a few people on both sides took the initiative to attack their unsuspecting partner. Before Dorcas could conjure ropes with which to bind Bellatrix however, she was engaged in an active duel with Antonin Dolohov.

Within moments, Dorcas noted with frustration that Dolohov may have even been a better dueler than Bellatrix was. He, however, didn't have the anger behind his hexes that Bellatrix had, and it wasn't personal for him. Dorcas refused to let him get the upper hand. If this duel was going to be anything besides an obvious win for Dorcas, it was going to be evenly matched. She would be sure of that.

"Dolohov, might I recommend that next time you need your picture taken, you return to whoever took your mug shot for the ministry. I've been staring at your wanted poster for a month, and had just managed to master suppressing my urge to vomit. Now you're here in front of me and it's taking everything I have to control myself. I didn't think it was possible for you to be more ugly in person, but kudos to you for proving me wrong!" Dorcas declared haughtily, trying to engage Dolohov.

Even when a green jet of light flew past her head, missing her by only inches immediately after her commentary, it didn't occur to Dorcas that her favorite dueling strategy might be a touch dangerous.

"Dolohov!" Bellatrix snapped at the burly man who was firing off spells in a rapid succession. Dorcas was dancing around them easily, smirking. "Get my wand!"

As if reminded of his mission, Dolohov immediately made concentrated efforts towards summoning Bellatrix's wand. Dorcas barely maintained her grip on it, struggling to the best of her abilities not to lose her only chance at an upper hand.

If Bellatrix got her wand back, this duel was going to go downhill quickly.

Just as the wand began to slip through Dorcas' fingers, a loud crack echoed through the air, and green sparks flew everywhere. This distraction caused Dorcas to lose her grip on the wand, and it flew easily into Dolohov's hand.

While the wand was still in the air, Dorcas began rapidly placing protection spells around herself. If she was going to be dueling Bellatrix and Dolohov, she was going to need every single one of them.

It didn't take long however, for Dorcas to notice that many of the cracks around her weren't the sparks, but Death Eaters disapparating. More than one of them were hauling wounded others, and Dorcas even saw a few unmoving bodies.

Dorcas looked quickly to Bellatrix and Dolohov, and saw them engaged in a verbal battle. Neither looked pleased at the concept of leaving, but Bellatrix was insisting that the Dark Lord summoned them and that they must go immediately.

"You can't expect me to let a filthy mudblood get away with saying what she said to me!" Dolohov shouted, and Bellatrix looked entirely unconcerned.

"You obviously have never dueled Meadowes." Bellatrix stated. "Verbal sparring is her favorite game."

"Well, the only games I play with mudbloods are ones that they don't enjoy." Dolohov snarled immediately, turning his wand on Dorcas. Without pause, Bellatrix disarmed Dolohov.

"The Dark Lord has summoned us!" Bellatrix shrieked. "We will go to him immediately, no matter how bruised your ego may be!" Dolohov still looked furious, but nodded tersely at Bellatrix.

"You heard your Mummy Dolohov." Dorcas said seriously. "You can't play anymore; it's time for your nap."

At that, Bellatrix had to dig her fingernails quite viciously into Dolohov's arm to stop him from attacking Dorcas even without a wand. Dorcas resisted the urge to chuckle at his facial expression, contorted with rage. Instead, she shot at spell at it. He ducked quickly, and barely avoided it.

"This isn't over Meadowes." Bellatrix said nastily, not releasing her grip on a fuming Dolohov. "You're playing with fire, and we both know that disgusting squib little sister of yours is going to pay the price."

Dorcas merely ignored her, swallowing the angry lump that formed in her throat at the squib comment. She was beginning to feel quite woozy, and it disconcerted her.

She pointed her wand at Bellatrix, preparing to fire another curse while her defenses were down. All the other Death Eaters were gone now, and the Ministry employees that remained standing were moving quickly towards Dorcas, intending to help finish this battle.

Realizing she had only moments, Bellatrix gripped Dolohov's arm tighter, and spun on the spot. They disappeared almost immediately, and the last thing Dorcas saw of them was Dolohov's face twisted into an angry snarl.

As soon as the threat was gone, Dorcas found her own legs give out from under her, and she half fell, half sat on the ground. By now, everyone was getting very close.

"Meadowes!" A voice called, and glancing up, Dorcas determined that it belonged to one of the Prewitt twins. Though usually quite skilled at telling them apart (they had been in her year), her vision had blurred, and Dorcas found herself unable to determine which one it was.

Dorcas remained seated on the ground, even as all of the people closed in on her in a way that would usually make her so uncomfortable she would be cursing them all. She wasn't positive she even could muster up the energy to perform a spell right now, never mind that she wasn't confident about the current location of her wand.

"Sit still." Dorcas heard a soft and vaguely familiar voice say quietly to her, as warm, slim fingers gripped her right arm tightly.

A moment later, a sharp burning sensation flew through her arm, and Dorcas yelped involuntarily. Turning to see who had caused her pain, Dorcas found herself face to face with a pair of startling green eyes. The Order's resident makeshift healer, Lily Evans.

Dorcas' eyes immediately shifted from the eyes to the placement of the wand, and saw the large gash on her arm. Her jumper and robes were torn, singed and soaked in her own blood.

"That's quite the cut you got yourself there Meadowes." Dorcas heard, and immediately recognized the voice as Mad Eye. Her eyes followed the voice, and found her mentor standing right over her. "It's a wonder you managed to stay up. Must have been running on pure adrenaline. Maybe if you were paying attention it wouldn't have happened."

"Sorry we can't all lounge around and duel Malfoy like you were Mad Eye." Dorcas sniped. "Some of us had to take on the big kids so you could sit back and relax while fighting your little girl."

"There's my girl." Mad Eye said. "That's gonna leave a scar you know."

"Eh" Dorcas said, shrugging with only a slight wince of pain when she moved her arm. "I didn't have any plans to be a beauty queen anyways."

"Well, even still, we need to get this looked at by a real healer, no offense Evans." Mad Eye said, and Lily backed up slowly, nodding in agreement. Though talented with healing charms, Lily wasn't a trained healer and was mostly able to keep wounds from bleeding any further.

With the bleeding having ceased in her arm, Dorcas was beginning to feel much better. Someone tossed her a bottle of water and she drank it quickly, surprised by how thirsty she was. She hadn't realized before.

Standing slowly, Dorcas only had a slight head rush. Gideon Prewitt grabbed her arm.

"I'm going to apparate her to Mungo's, make sure she gets there all right." He told Mad Eye, who nodded gruffly in response.

Moody turned on everyone else standing in the circle around Dorcas. All eyes shifted to him, and she was glad, because she was beginning to feel self conscious with all the attention on her.

"All right everyone, back to the office, I don't even want to imagine the paperwork nightmare this here just caused." Mad Eye said, and was treated to more than a few groans. "And next time, nobody else try and pull a Meadowes here and think that taking on two Death Eaters at once gets you a free pass from paperwork."

"Oh, Mad Eye, you caught me." Dorcas said with a weak smile. "Have fun doing my paperwork."

He chuckled under his breath and Gideon gripped her arm a little tighter before apparating her away to St. Mungo's.

* * *

It was three weeks after the incident in the muggle shopping center, and the Auror office was still buzzing with activity.

Luckily, there hadn't been any more public attacks, though a few families and individuals had been harassed and reported missing. It was already taking everything that the Auror office had to keep everything under control.

Dorcas was sitting at her desk, and an enormous pile of paperwork sat menacingly in front of her. Mad Eye had thought he was funny, assigning her all the paperwork the office had all week because she hadn't been there for the paperwork disaster after the shopping center incident.

Just as Dorcas convinced herself to tackle the smallest stack, a small, fluffy black owl flew into the tallest stack of paperwork, knocking things everywhere. Dorcas huffed moodily before she realized it was the owl she had bought Amber.

Confused, Dorcas quickly untied the letter from the small bird's leg. School had started two weeks ago and it was the middle of the day. As far as she knew, Amber didn't take the owl with her to school.

Opening the letter, her questions were immediately answered. Instead of being written with a quill on parchment (Amber liked to say she was practicing for Hogwarts) the letter was written carefully on expensive stationary with a ballpoint pen. Her mother's signature on the bottom only confirmed Dorcas' suspicions.

_Dorcas,_

_I need to ask a huge favor of you. I just got a call from your sister's school, and all of the children have to be picked up early because they had a few pipes burst in the basement. Normally, I would go and get her myself, but work is really busy today and I just can't leave. Can you please go and get her and keep her until I get out of work at 3? I'll even get her from your flat if it is more convenient. Thank you so much! Can you call me please instead of responding by owl? I need as much time as possible to find a babysitter if you can't do it._

_Mum_

Picking up the phone, Dorcas immediately called her mother at work and told her she could pick up Amber. She could hear all the noise in the background, and knew that her mother wasn't lying about it being a busy day.

Mrs. Meadowes worked as an assistant in a prominent London law firm, and while her job was always quite busy, she usually had a fair amount of flexibility. However, whenever the firm got a particularly large case, every bit of the staff was on call all day, no exceptions.

Dorcas, however, had more than enough vacation time available to her, so it was very easy for her to take a half day and go get Amber. It was already almost noon anyways, and she felt absolutely no desire to stay and complete all of her paperwork. This was a convenient excuse.

Flooing home quickly to change, Dorcas knew that she had to hurry in order to pick Amber up from primary school in time. She threw on jeans, trainers and a jumper, and shoving her wand in the waistband of her pants, apparated near Amber's school.

As soon as she hit the main road, Dorcas began discreetly scanning her surroundings for people who may be following her. This was a recent force of habit that Dorcas despised but understood was necessary. She was living directly in the center of a war, as much as she hated it, and there were going to be casualties. She was trying not to be one of them.

Walking into the schoolyard, Dorcas immediately started to search for Amber. She found her almost immediately, and began heading in that direction.

Even from a distance, she could see Amber's blonde curls blowing softly in the wind. She saw Dorcas, grabbed her backpack, and pulled eagerly on her teacher's skirt, pointing at Dorcas approaching.

Upon Dorcas' wave, the teacher released Amber, who sprinted across the playground. As soon as she made it all the way across Dorcas picked her up and spun her around, hugging her tightly.

Amber giggled loudly, and Dorcas placed her back on the ground, immediately bending over to tuck her jumper back in and taking the backpack from her.

"Guess what ladybug?" Dorcas asked, and Amber stared at her, blue eyes wide in anticipation. "I think that getting out of school early calls for going out to lunch in celebration. What do you say?"

"Yes, yes!" Amber cheered, jumping up and down. Dorcas stifled the giggle that wanted to escape when she watched Amber's curls continue to bounce even after she had stopped.

"Good, I know a yummy café down the street that makes the _best _grilled cheese." Dorcas said, and Amber grabbed her hand and followed her around the corner, walking on the sidewalk.

Within five minutes they were at the café, and Dorcas asked the hostess for a table. Because it was a beautiful day out, Amber wanted to sit outside, and Dorcas readily agreed.

Sitting outside under the large umbrella that shaded their table, Dorcas couldn't help but note what a wonderful turn her day had taken. Had her mother not owled her, she would be sitting at work, filling out endless hours worth of paperwork.

No, surely this was an improvement.

"I got a 95 on my spelling exam today Dor!" Amber said, chatting happily about school. Dorcas smiled and listened intently. "It was the best grade in the whole class, and Jenny Lawrence was so angry I did better than her that she cried! It was so funny!"

Dorcas' grin grew even wider. It seemed that her sister had inherited her sense of humor.

The sun was shining brightly, and though there was a low hum of noise in the background, Dorcas was glad that this particular café wasn't on one of the main roads in London. She couldn't stand all of the noise right in the center of the city.

Amber was smiling and humming softly under her breath, and it was so cute that Dorcas wished she had a camera to take a picture. Her collection of pictures of Amber (both wizarding and muggle) was growing rapidly, though she kept them all locked away safely at home. Someday, when this war was over, she would put them up everywhere.

Dorcas noticed an errant curl had escaped from the headband Amber's hair had been so carefully tucked back in by her mother, and smiled sadly to herself when she remembered a time when her mother had put ribbons and bows in her hair before school every day.

She leaned across the table to tuck the curl back in, and just as she pulled her hand back, she watched as Amber's eyes went wide in horror and amazement.

Flying towards the table they were sitting at was a jet of bright orange light.

**A/N: Hello! This one definitely didn't come easily to me, so I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. Oh well! Thank you for reading! Please leave a review and tell me what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5

The Reducto curse hit the table, which immediately exploded.

Shards of wood were stuck into Dorcas' arms, which she had used to cover her face, looking like large splinters. Immediately, her concern jumped to Amber. Her head jerked up, fixing on the little girl sitting a few feet from her.

Dorcas' breathing resumed when she saw the Amber was unharmed. She had been given only a moment of notice before the spell had hit the table, and had used it to cast a shield spell around Amber.

Upon seeing her sister unharmed, Dorcas breathed for the first time since she had seen the attack coming. Now that she had half a moment to think, knowing Amber had been safe from the blast, a white hot fury filled her veins.

She immediately began an effort to scan for whoever could have attacked, her wand in her hand at the ready. It took only a few seconds before she found a pair of Death Eaters, standing at the edge of the outdoor patio, smirking at their supposed success.

Dorcas recognized both of the men, but wasn't thinking clearly enough to know either of their names.

With a silent determination and a not so calm rage, Dorcas formulated a plan.

While they were standing, idiotically gloating over their minor victory, Dorcas shot a stunning spell at the larger of the two Death Eaters, Without even enough time to formulate a look of shock, he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Dorcas jumped across the table and grabbed Amber roughly by the arm, feeling a twinge of guilt when the little girl yelped in surprise and a bit of pain. Reminding herself that this was more important, she placed Amber behind her, and backed up against a wall, completely shielding the little girl from view.

Now comforted that Amber was safe, Dorcas turned her attention to dealing with the situation at hand. She was furious that this had even happened, blaming herself for being careless.

Leaning back every few moments to ensure that Amber was still ensconced safely behind her, Dorcas braced herself for battle. She was ending this _now_ and anyone who heard about what happened was going to think twice about following this example.

The Death Eater who remained conscious was eyeing Dorcas frantically, unsure of what to do next. He clearly hadn't planned on taking her on alone, but with his friend unconscious, he now had no choice. He was going to have to duel a very powerful, very angry witch by himself.

He managed to dodge the first spell Dorcas shot at him, but couldn't move quickly enough to dodge the second, His legs locked together, but before Dorcas could silence him, he had the forethought to mutter the counter curse. He wasn't however, quick enough to get up.

Only halfway risen, Dorcas hit him again, and his left arm opened wide with a gash. The Death Eater looked at his arm in horror, watching the blood pour from his arm, before scrambling for his wand. Immediately upon finding it, he apparated away, leaving his friend (and his left pinkie finger due to an unfortunate splinching) behind without a second thought.

With the other Death Eater still unconscious on the ground Dorcas immediately turned to Amber, remaining conscious of keeping her shielded with her own slim body, though she knew it would do no good. She would defend Amber with her own life, but if a spell were to hit her, her sister would be defenseless anyways.

Looking down, she noticed that Amber was crying silently, tears running down her cheeks and eyes wide with fear. Crouching down and using the pads of her thumbs, Dorcas wiped the tears away like she used to when Amber was a baby.

Standing again, she pulled the little girl into her chest and stroked her curls gently, humming soothingly under her breath. Amber's breathing slowed slightly, but Dorcas' heart was still racing.

It skipped a beat a moment later when Dorcas heard a slight crash. Spinning on her heel rapidly, she turned around just in time to see the previously unconscious Death Eater press a finger to his Dark Mark, glancing fearfully at the chair he had accidentally kicked over in the process of rolling over.

Screaming with rage, Dorcas immediately used a spell and knocked the Death Eater unconscious again, perhaps a bit too violently. His head cracked against the concrete, and a stream of blood began to trickle onto the ground. By the time Dorcas thought to apparate herself and Amber away, it was too late. Other Death Eaters were arriving, responding to the distress call of their comrade.

Using her last free moment, Dorcas sent a Patronus to Mad Eye with only the address of her current location, hoping he would understand the need to send her assistance immediately.

Backing up so much that Amber was literally pressed to both the heavy brick wall behind her and her sister's body, Dorcas put up a shield spell to protect herself from at least the more minor spells that were sure to be flying in half of a second.

She may have been a good dueler, but even she couldn't take on 15 Death Eaters at once.

With this in mind, Dorcas began incapacitating those who she thought she might have been able to quickly. She started with the boy who looked no more than 17, and couldn't help but frown at how he was wasting his life and his potential. He crumpled to the ground half a moment later.

Next she hit the slight statured Death Eater who looked hesitant about being there at all. Immediately afterwards, the female Death Eater peering warily at Amber, hiding behind Dorcas.

As they fell, one after the other, Dorcas gained in confidence. She couldn't help but to think that perhaps, just maybe she could actually do this. She could hold them off until help arrived.

This wasn't going to be the end of her life, and she wasn't going to leave her little sister defenseless to die.

Still, she had over 10 Death Eaters to deal with. Even with this knowledge though, Dorcas was hopeful. She was confident that Mad Eye would be sending help any minute now, and even only 2 or 3 moderately talented Aurors would make getting out of this jam more than reasonable.

Two more Death Eaters fell over the next 3 minutes, but by this point, Dorcas was only barely holding her own, and she was worried that someone was going to get to Amber soon. Amber wasn't a toddler anymore, and Dorcas was a small woman; it was difficult, if not impossible, to shield Amber from every angle with her own slim body. Taking a few curses, she put a few shield charms around Amber, but they would only do so much in the event of a truly harmful curse.

Dorcas was struggling, even though she was dueling only the most inexperienced of Death Eaters, those clearly sent to tire her out, or capture her as a best case scenario. Still, they had numbers where she had skill. Still, she knew up until now she had been lucky. Their complete lack of skill was the only reason she wasn't dead right now.

Her luck was about to run out.

Just as Dorcas knocked out the Death Eater she had been dueling most actively, more and more Death Eaters began arriving on the scene. And these were the ones that Dorcas knew by name.

Dolohov, the Carrows, Karkaroff, Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy were making their way closer and closer to the active battle, though not doing anything to actively participate. Still, Dorcas didn't have a good feeling about what would happen next.

"What did I tell you imbeciles!" A shrill voice shrieked, and with Dorcas' recognition of it came an almost insuppressible urge to vomit. "I told you that the way to get Meadowes was to get the girl! You can't even follow simple instructions."

Horrified, Dorcas steeled herself to face Bellatrix, who emerged from the crowd. All dueling had ceased now, and every eye was transfixed on her, her long hair tumbling behind her, her dark beauty both enticing and terrifying at the same time.

Dorcas grabbed the child's arm and pressed her so close to the wall she gasped as the air was squeezed out of her lungs. As Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters inched closer, it became harder and harder for Dorcas to suppress the urge to hyperventilate.

Panicking, Dorcas tried to think of a way to escape the situation. Where was Mad Eye when you needed him?

She couldn't apparate, she didn't have enough time and the spinning would expose Amber, even if it was only for a fraction of a second. She had been struggling before, was worn out, and even if she wasn't, she didn't have a chance against the Death Eaters currently present, so that option was out.

It wasn't looking good.

"Meadowes, it's really too bad the trap you've got yourself caught in right now, isn't it? And with the lovely Amber out with you as well. You really shouldn't have been so careless." Bellatrix said, her voice trying to sound loving and concerned, but it was off. It came off terrifying and psychotic instead.

"Don't even think about it." Dorcas said warningly, but Bellatrix looked unconcerned. "You may think you know me Lestrange, but no one knows what I am _truly _capable of. Stay away from her or you will all find out."

"See Meadowes, that's where you are wrong." Bellatrix said calmly, pacing back and forth in front of Dorcas, her wand dangling carelessly between her fingertips. Dorcas thought about making an attack, but the risks outweighed the benefits. "I know exactly what you are capable of, and it's not much. I'm not concerned, but you should be. _You_ underestimate _me_."

Dorcas wondered to herself, for perhaps the first time, if she _did _underestimate Bellatrix.

"Oh, Bella love, no one underestimates you." A suave voice called out, and Dorcas looked warily to see who was approaching. If this was a friend, they could be her saving grace. If it was a foe, her chances had just gotten even slimmer.

"It's impossible to underestimate a psychopath." The figure finally emerged, and Dorcas sighed audibly in relief when Sirius Black and James Potter emerged from the crowd, followed by other Order Members. Something had finally turned in her favor.

Bellatrix shot a dark purple hex at her cousin, and he yelped as it zoomed past his head.

"That was _not _very nice." Sirius said, a semblance of calm covering his features, but it wasn't difficult to see how enraged he really was. He and Bellatrix never had been the closest of cousins. He shot an equally nasty looking hex her way.

"Blood traitors don't deserve kindness." Bellatrix responded, and their skirmish turned into a fully fledged battle. Potter shot a curse at Malfoy when he appeared to be about to join the conflict between the Black cousins, and that began their duel. Pettigrew and Lupin each also grabbed a Death Eater and began a duel. The rest of the Order and Death Eaters joined in moments later.

During the momentary confusion, Dorcas stunned a few more of the lower level Death Eaters, and the rest scattered. Mind scrambling, she thought desperately in an effort to come up with what she could do to save herself and her sister.

Amber couldn't get caught up in the middle of this.

Thinking quickly, Dorcas developed a plan, though a rough one. Checking once again to make sure all of the Death Eaters were occupied, she turned to Amber and kissed her forehead briefly.

"I love you so much, you know that, right?" Dorcas said, and Amber nodded in response. "Amber, listen to me closely. I'm going to put a spell on you, and it's going to feel kind of funny, but you need to trust me. I'm going to try to help us."

Amber nodded, looking terrified, and Dorcas tried frantically to think, and for it to be clear and logical. She was usually so calm under pressure in the middle of a battle. However, Amber was never there. She brought it all to a totally different level.

"I'm going to put a spell on you that makes you kind of invisible, okay?" Dorcas asked, and Amber nodded. "Then, I'm going to cause a big distraction so you can get away. Amber, when I get everyone's attention, I want you to run, no matter what you see happen, do you understand me?"

She nodded, but bit her lip nervously. "But what about…" She started to ask, but Dorcas pressed her fingertips to her little mouth.

"Do you trust me?" She questioned, and Amber nodded again, without hesitation. "Then I need you to not worry about me. I want you to run as fast as you can, and the only thing I want you to do besides that is make sure that no matter what, no green light comes near you. It will hurt you. Do you understand me?"

"Yes." Amber replied in a small voice, and Dorcas was reminded of exactly how young she still was. She was only seven years old, and she wasn't part of the wizarding world. Dorcas felt sick at how terrifying this must be for her.

"I love you so much baby. I'm so sorry." Dorcas reminded her, and Amber hugged her tightly, whispering that she loved Dorcas too, before backing up bravely, ready for whatever came next. Dorcas smiled a small smile at how brave her baby sister was.

Not missing the parallel from what could have only been 15 minutes ago (but seemed like a lifetime), Dorcas reached and tucked the same errant curl from before back into the headband, before touching her wand to her sister's forehead.

She watched as the Disillusionment charm ran down Amber's small body, and she gradually disappeared. With a gentle shove in the other direction, Dorcas watched Amber's small pink trainers head slowly away from the battle, until they finally disappeared, the spell complete.

Steeling herself, Dorcas turned her attention back to the battle. Without giving herself a chance to think about what she was doing, she shot a tickling curse at Bellatrix's back.

Enraged, Bellatrix spun around, and her face transformed from a snarl to a cackling laugh when she saw who had shot the spell at her.

"So Meadowes," She said evilly, and Dorcas ignored the shivers that ran down her spine. Her instincts were screaming that something wasn't right, but she ignored them. "You had the chance to finish me off, and you couldn't even do it then. I always knew you didn't have it in you."

Dorcas merely smiled, and shot another curse. Their duel began actively, and with a quick nod, Sirius moved on to someone else, slashing down a Death Eater who had almost cornered Pettigrew.

Dorcas felt a slight movement behind her, and looked around anxiously but saw nothing. Shaking her head angrily to get rid of her paranoia, she turned back to Bellatrix. This battle required all of her attention, and she needed to stop getting distracted.

Just for a reaction, Dorcas blew up a table behind Bellatrix. A large shard of wood stuck itself into her arm and she shrieked, enraged. Dorcas laughed, only to make her angrier. The longer she could keep Bellatrix from realizing Amber was gone, the safer the little girl was.

Though Dorcas didn't realize it, she had exploded a table that one of the Death Eaters who had scattered earlier was hiding under. She didn't see him rise, infuriated, a large scrap of wood sticking out of his eye.

She was so focused on Bellatrix, she never saw what happened next.

She didn't see him pull out his wand, and train it carefully on Dorcas with his good eye. She missed him mutter the Killing Curse under his breath, and the satisfaction that flooded his features when the bright green light left his wand.

She didn't see the curse head straight for her heart.

Someone else, however, did.

Dorcas did see the honey blonde curls flying in the air, moving too fast for the Disillusionment charm to hide them. Her eyes trained on the curls, and she saw them move in front of her.

But most of all, she saw the bundle of curls and the curse collide.

Both time and Dorcas' heart stopped at the same time, as the Disillusionment charm failed and Dorcas saw Amber lying immobile on the ground.

Immeasurable pain swept through her, and Dorcas lost all sense of reasoning.

Without even realizing what she was doing, Dorcas released an angry burst of accidental magic so large, the Death Eater who performed the curse collapsed to the ground instantly, dead. She had never killed anyone before. She wasn't sorry.

Within moments all of the other Death Eaters were apparating away as well, each sporting a grievous wound. Even as they apparated away, however, the attention wasn't focused on them.

Everyone was transfixed on the scene in front of them as Dorcas Meadowes, one of the toughest Aurors in the department, a girl who wasn't going to take any of your shit, belly sobbed on the ground, stroking the hair of a small girl.

"I love you so much baby, so much." She sobbed, picking up the small body and cradling it in her arms, as if she was holding a newborn. "You're gonna be okay, I just need you to wake up and tell Sissa where it hurts. Talk to me baby, just talk to me."

All of the Order watched this scene, horrified and unsure of what exactly to do next. The devastation was obvious, but it was equally as clear that what had happened hadn't sunk in yet, not really.

No one wanted to be the one to truly break the news.

Just as a few of the Order members appeared to be bracing themselves to approach Dorcas, more cracks of apparition were heard. Everyone but Dorcas grabbed their wand, armed for battle.

It was unnecessary however, because the new arrivals were instead every member of the Auror department that Mad Eye had managed to scrape up in the last 20 minutes.

Instantly, both groups dropped their wands, though they were still clearly on edge. Mad Eye strode through the crowd to assess the damage.

First he saw the dead Death Eater, still slumped over the table where he had been hit by Dorcas' magic. His eyes followed the trail of devastation until he saw the most devastating sight of all.

His favorite cadet, the toughest woman he knew, sobbing, cradling the remains of the only thing she loved on the ground. And he knew without a doubt she was broken.

Swallowing hard, Mad Eye approached Dorcas slowly, cautiously.

When he finally arrived at her side, he crouched down on the ground, wincing slightly when his bad leg creaked with the movement. Dorcas didn't even notice him.

Putting one hand gently on her shoulder, Mad Eye shook her gently. She looked up at him, blurry eyed, hives erupting on her face and body. A strong, beautiful woman no more, she was nothing but a shell of a girl, desperately trying to turn back time.

With his free hand, Mad Eye reached over and gently closed the bright blue eyes of the dead little girl. Taking his hand off of Dorcas' shoulder he scooped Amber out of her arms, more determinedly when Dorcas struggled not to let go.

Carefully, he placed the small body on the ground, onto the blanket someone had conjured when he hadn't been looking.

He turned to Dorcas, who was sitting on the ground, staring desperately at her hands. She looked up at him, and the look in her eyes was so pathetic that he almost didn't recognize her.

"She's gone." He whispered, and it was as if when someone said it, it finally became real. Dorcas turned to the side and vomited all over the ground, her body unsure of how else to deal with the horror and trauma she was currently experiencing.

"No, no no." Dorcas murmured under her breath as it all sank in. "No, this is all my fault. I told her green was dangerous, and she must not have left when I saw her feet disappear and oh no she can't be gone!"

Mad Eye merely looked at her grimly, knowing nothing was going to make this go over any easier. He helped her carefully to her feet, and couldn't help but notice the way her whole body was trembling violently.

He knew that when this truly had time to sink in, there would be no containing the rage and no knowing how she would handle this happening.

"This is all my fault. It should have been me instead." Dorcas muttered angrily, and Mad Eye said nothing, knowing whatever he said would make no difference, not in her mind. Sometimes it was better to say nothing at all.

Dorcas looked down, and tears welled in her eyes again when she saw the small form crumpled on the ground. She bent over carefully, and tucked an escaped curl into the simple black headband one last time.

Her hand accidentally brushed her sister's face, and she instantly recoiled. Her skin had been cold.

A shift took place in Dorcas Meadowes in that moment.

Amber had been everything good in her, and now she was gone.

She knew who was responsible for this. And damn it, they were going to pay.

**A/N: Woah.**

**So, this chapter has been really, **_**really **_**hard for me to write. Those last lines were the first that I wrote down for this story, and though I wasn't sure how I was going to get this far, I knew I had to try.**

**I wrote this whole chapter in one night, knowing I just had to suck it up and get it out, and that I would feel better afterwards. **

**So here it is. **

**Thanks for reading.**

**~Cassie**


	6. Chapter 6

The black high heels were pinching her feet.

Instead of this being a problem however, Dorcas enjoyed it. Though it didn't feel _nice, _the physical pain was comforting. Bearable.

It was the emotional pinch (that was actually much more like a Crucio) that Dorcas couldn't handle. Physical pain she was used to. This was a war she was fighting in, and physical pain was part of the package.

For the most part however, up until now Dorcas had escaped the emotional pain. This was a time when it was beneficial that she wasn't close to anyone. When people went missing, it stung a bit, but she moved on easily.

When the most important thing in your life was gone, it was a bit more of a challenge.

Trying to zip the black tweed dress was another challenge, but Dorcas had plenty of time. Amber's funeral wasn't for another hour and a half, and leaving now would only give Dorcas more time to stare at the small wooden box and try to suppress the overwhelming urge to vomit.

No, going at all would be difficult enough. The last thing she needed was to be _early. _

If Dorcas had her way, there wouldn't be a funeral, and even if there was one, she certainly wouldn't be attending. However, Amber was being buried as a muggle and Dorcas didn't have it in her to leave an entire church full of muggles unprotected with the distinct possibility of a Death Eater attack.

Focusing on her job was perhaps the only thing keeping her alive at this particular moment.

However, even her job, the most stable thing in Dorcas' life, was causing such _difficulty _lately. Being an Auror meant she had to protect people. The very aspect which she had loved so much at the beginning now made her knees go weak.

What was the good in protecting people when she didn't protect Amber?

To Dorcas at least, the main purpose of becoming an Auror wasn't to protect all the citizens of the wizarding world. Her main focus was to improve the future for only one, and now she was gone. There seemed to be little tying her to her career choice, and sometimes she just wanted to give up being an Auror all together.

She had enough in savings that she was confident she would be fine without working for at least a little while if she was careful how she spent her galleons. And if she didn't have to work, it would give her much more time to hunt down the people responsible for what happened to Amber.

Dorcas shook her head, as if by doing so she could eliminate those thoughts from her own mind. As much as she wanted revenge, and she _would _have it, now was not the time to think of such things.

Today was Amber's day, a day focused on her and celebrating who she was and who she should have been. It would already be the most difficult day of Dorcas' life without the added problem of ruminating on how to hunt down and kill the entire Death Eater population.

Dorcas milled about her flat for another 45 minutes, cleaning idly, anything to keep her mind from wandering and give her hands something to do. It was one of the only things she had inherited from her mother, the desire to clean as a distraction. Over the past few days, Dorcas had found that distraction was key to her survival.

The first day after Amber died, she didn't get out of bed. She laid there, trapped in her own mind, unable to stop replaying that day. She was physically incapable of movement, so she just stayed still and her thoughts almost swallowed her whole. Eventually, exhaustion took over and she had about an hour of sleep, dreaming of what had happened.

The next day, she managed to get out of bed to shower and change pyjamas, but that was about it. She now hadn't eaten since that fateful lunch, and she had vomited the contents of that meal not long after she had finished consuming it. However, there was no desire to eat. She made a decision that day that she would remain in her bed until she just wasted away in peace.

The third day, Mrs. Meadowes showed up, forced her out of the house and to the Ministry to apply for a leave from work. Dorcas wasn't quite sure how her mother was so pulled together, so calm, but she didn't really have the energy to question it. It showed exactly how unperturbed she had become with everything around her that she didn't even question that her mother went to the Ministry of Magic, a place that had terrified her since she was 11 years old.

That afternoon, Dorcas made an active decision. Though she had no desire to live, she couldn't die yet either. If she allowed herself to waste away now, Amber's death would go entirely unpunished.

That was unacceptable.

So this morning, the morning of the funeral, Dorcas got herself out of bed. She showered of her own volition, and put on the somber dress her mother had placed out for her the day before. Wasting away wasn't an option, at least not now, when the people indirectly responsible for Amber's death walked the streets.

Now that it was time to leave, Dorcas grabbed her parka and headed outside for the cold, wet trek down to the church.

The weather seemed fitting for the day that Dorcas had ahead of her. The sky was grim and grey, and the rain fell slowly but steadily. Had the sun been shining, the weather wouldn't have appropriately reflected the sadness that this day contained.

Despite her determination to defend her sister's funeral and avenge her death, Dorcas was entirely unsure about how exactly she was even going to survive this day.

The church came into view, and Dorcas became short of breath. Forcibly, she put one foot in front of the other, but her footsteps were slower now, more deliberate. The muggles on the street passed by her, no one glancing twice at the slim woman struggling to get herself down the sidewalk.

Though each step was a struggle, Dorcas eventually made her way to the front of the doors. There, she halted, unable to convince herself that she had to go inside.

The second that she walked through those doors, front and center would be a glorified box with her sister inside. She didn't think she could handle that.

She already knew what they would say if they knew what she was thinking. They would tell her she was wrong, that it wasn't her sister, that it was only a body and that everything that made Amber who she was had left her the moment the curse had hit her small body.

In Dorcas' opinion, this was bullshit. Her sister's spirit may be gone, but that didn't make the body in that box any less Amber. That body was the form Amber had taken for the last 7 years, and if anything represented her better, Dorcas would like to know what it was. That _body_, it _was _her sister whether she liked it or not.

She didn't want to go in the church, she didn't want to see the casket and she didn't want to have to face everyone.

Amber was dead because of her, and how do you explain that?

Yesterday, when she went into work, everyone had looked at her like she was going to unhinge at any moment. To be honest, she wasn't entirely sure she wouldn't.

As she filled out her paperwork, Mad Eye had sat and watched her silently. It was disconcerting, his penetrating gaze on her, as if he could read her mind and know what she was thinking.

She didn't envy anyone else who also had to live in her head at the moment.

Then as if trying to prove how well he knew her, he merely stated, "It wasn't your fault you know."

Dorcas looked up, stunned, and just continued to stare at him, unsure of what exactly to say next. She didn't agree with what he had said, but she didn't really have the strength to argue with him either. She nodded.

"Meadowes," he said softly, and it was so out of character that it forced Dorcas to meet his eyes, "you were prepared to sacrifice yourself so that she could get away."

"We all saw how well that plan worked out Mad Eye." Dorcas snapped, and Mad Eye merely sighed. "Nothing you say is going to convince me that I wasn't directly responsible for this. I didn't do enough to keep her safe. Hell, I'm the one who started all of this! You said it yourself once."

"You could never have predicted what was going to happen Dorcas." He said, and she flinched. He used her first name, and it made her want to cry. She liked it much better when she was the impersonal Meadowes.

"I should have." Dorcas whispered, and Mad Eye made a move to come closer to her. Dorcas, positive she couldn't handle anymore of this right now, signed her name with a flourish.

Without even a glace behind her when she heard Mad Eye call her name, Dorcas walked out of the Auror office.

Now, standing outside the church, Dorcas knew that if anything was going to unhinge her, it would probably be this service.

Suddenly, a horrifying thought occurred to her. Would her sister's casket be open? She had refused to speak to her mother about the funeral arrangements, so now she didn't know. Amber's death, though violent and traumatic to Dorcas, hadn't been disfiguring. The casket could easily be open.

Now, a new thing was holding Dorcas back from entering the church. This had all been hard enough when she didn't have to once _again_ look upon the consequences of her own actions.

Feeling like a coward, Dorcas felt her own body betray her, and began to turn around, fully prepared to walk away from the church. She didn't have to be the Auror here. If she sent a Patronus to Mad Eye, surely he would send someone to watch over her dead sister's funeral.

Before she could even fully turn around, however, another slim arm linked through Dorcas'. Glancing quickly to her right, Dorcas' body was racked with a dry sob when she saw the honey blonde curls, so familiar. A large hand rested gently on her other shoulder, and the familiarity was strangely comforting. She looked up, and her eyes met her father's.

Standing outside the church with her parents on either side of her, Dorcas wasn't sure what exactly was going to come next. She glanced at her balding father, his normally serene face pain ridden. Her mother's face held a similar expression.

"Today is a day we can only survive together." Mrs. Meadowes said softly, and Dorcas felt the tears well in her eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time in the past week. "The three of us may not always see eye to eye, but today is about the only thing we had in common. She would want this."

Dorcas nodded, and though it went against everything she usually felt, she couldn't help but be grateful to have both of her parents by her side at that moment. She needed someone to feel close to today.

As if reading each other's minds, what remained of the Meadowes family simultaneously took a deep breath, and together, made the final, hardest steps into the small church.

Over the next half an hour, the church filled slowly with people. Dorcas sat in the pew with her parents, as she knew she should, and while their presence was a relief, it was suffocating at the same time. She couldn't look them in the eye, the guilt was overwhelming.

Even just being in the church was such a challenge, and Dorcas was regretting coming at all. The ceremony started, and she found herself unable to concentrate. Though her sister's casket was closed (apparently her mother was unable to face her dead child any more than Dorcas was), its very presence dominated the room.

At this point, the minister was droning on, saying all the correct kind words about Amber. It made Dorcas want to puke.

This man didn't know her sister. He would never truly understand what the world lost. He couldn't properly convey the tragedy that had struck. His mild mannered words did nothing but make Dorcas angry.

He didn't know that she got grouchy when she was sick, or threw a tantrum when the different foods on her plate touched. He didn't know that she loved broccoli and chocolate frosting, or that her best friend's name was Mary.

This man didn't know Amber at all, and it was immensely frustrating to Dorcas that he was even pretending to.

After only a few moments, she couldn't look at him anymore. Using a skill she had honed so carefully over years of schooling, she tuned him out, choosing instead to focus on the other side of her sister's coffin. Her mother grabbed her hand, and for the first time since she was a small child, she didn't pull away.

By default, refusing to meet the minister's eye had her gazing at the beautiful flower displays that had all been placed carefully to the right of Amber's coffin. Dorcas deliberately didn't let her eyes wander even the slightest bit to the left. She couldn't handle it.

Inexplicably, Dorcas felt drawn to one particular bouquet of flowers. The roses were a brilliant red, and the stems a vibrant green. Upon her close examination, Dorcas noticed each of the flowers still had their thorns.

Without knowing why, Dorcas spent the rest of the short ceremony transfixed on the flowers. She didn't feel it when her mother squeezed her hand at the end of the eulogy, or notice the people slowly filing out of the church. It wasn't until she felt her mother slowly disentangle their fingers that she noticed she was in the church alone.

Now held back by nothing, Dorcas felt herself approaching the bouquet, almost against her will. She was entirely unsure as to why she was so fascinated, but she knew something wasn't right.

As she got closer, Dorcas couldn't help but notice the small condolence card attached to the side of the flowers.

The parchment was heavy, and the handwriting was elegant. The ink was blood red.

Her mouth went completely dry, and Dorcas rushed the last few steps.

Unceremoniously, she yanked the note off, the sense of dread overcoming all else. She just couldn't believe this was real. She would have to read the words before she was convinced.

_Meadowes family,_

_It is unfortunate that you were struck with such tragedy last Tuesday. My deepest condolences for what is surely a devastating loss._

_Bella_

Infuriated, Dorcas ripped the note into tiny pieces.

Today of all days, Bellatrix was mocking her. She didn't even pause to think, and before she knew it, she found herself outside of the house of a suspected Death Eater she had been looking into last week, before the incident.

Though she knew it certainly wasn't her best plan, Dorcas was far too blinded by anger to consider the possible ramifications of what she was going to do next. She was going to go in there and demand answers. And if they weren't here, she was going to move to wherever they were.

Grabbing her wand from her purse, she aimed in front of her, and before she could even really think about it, she blasted out a window. Determination in each of her steps, she moved closer towards the house.

She was cold.

She was calculating.

She was cruel.

But most of all, Dorcas Meadowes was _angry._

"Damn you Meadowes!" Mad Eye shouted at her in his office. Before Dorcas would've been upset her mentor was angry at her. She had always been the type to follow rules carefully. Now, she just didn't care.

"You can't just go completely against Ministry protocol and invade Death Eater's houses without back up Meadowes. What is _wrong _with you? You could have gotten yourself killed! And this isn't even the first time you've done it! It's the third time this month!" Mad Eye growled, but he wouldn't meet Dorcas' eye. "Are you _trying _to get yourself fired?"

"If we're being completely honest Mad Eye, I couldn't possibly care any less." Dorcas replied, and the older man looked at her in shock.

"Listen Meadowes, I know what happened last month hit you hard." Mad Eye began. "But you're throwing your entire career away here."

"I'm sorry Mad Eye, but I can't do this anymore." Dorcas replied, and if Mad Eye had been shocked before, it was nothing compared to now. "You haven't been letting me fight. I'm not accomplishing anything. And I swear to God next time I see one of those bastards I'm going to kill them. No questions asked."

"Well that certainly won't fly with the Minister." Mad Eye replied, and Dorcas nodded somberly, because she had known this time was coming. She had certainly thought about it a lot.

"I know Mad Eye, that's why I quit." Dorcas said, and Mad Eye looked like he wanted to jump across his desk and strangle her. Dorcas wished she could bring herself to care. About anything really.

"You're going to let them win?" Mad Eye growled, and Dorcas turned bright red.

"Absolutely not." She declared angrily, and Mad Eye looked confused. "I'm not going to lie to you Mad Eye. The people who killed my sister are going to pay dearly for what they did. There is nothing in this world I care about anymore, and I'm not going to stop until I'm dead. But I can't accomplish everything I need to within the confines of the Ministry."

Mad Eye nodded. "Well, as your mentor and a Ministry employee, I have to inform you that vigilante action will not be tolerated Meadowes."

Dorcas only nodded in response. She had been expecting this. She went to leave.

"Meadowes." Mad Eye said simply, and Dorcas turned around. Mad Eye was looking her directly in the eye, unflinching. "I know you're going to catch those bastards. Make them pay."

"Don't worry Mad Eye." Dorcas replied. "Voldemort himself will pay, even if it's the last thing I do."

**A/N: Another chapter down! Wow. I feel like the remnants of the story that is my baby are flying by me in the blink of an eye.**

**I think this story will probably only have 3 chapters left!**

**I'd love to hear what you think about what has happened so far! Please review!**

**~Cassie**


	7. Chapter 7

Dorcas frowned as she apparated into the alleyway just down the street from her parents' home. She wasn't looking forward to what she was about to have to do.

She was on her way to beg her mother to leave her childhood home, the place where some of her last memories of Amber lived. Due to her mother's aversion to magic, she wouldn't let Dorcas put the charms necessary to make the house safe on it. It was a miracle the Death Eaters hadn't shown up on the doorstep already.

Dorcas was Death Eater enemy number one at the moment.

To make matters worse, she was certain this conversation was going to go even worse due to her mother's newfound distrust of her and complete faith in the Ministry. Dorcas never thought she would see the day when her mother would completely rely on the Ministry of Magic to keep her safe. Especially when this was currently the one thing they were most incompetent at.

Mrs. Meadowes was taking everything that the Ministry said as if it was indisputable fact. It was making her unbearable for Dorcas to be around, especially because their current position was that Amber's death was accidental. They couldn't very well admit that a Death Eater attack led to the death of a child. The public's view of the Ministry as in control was paramount.

It made Dorcas' blood boil.

Her mother's turning to the Ministry was actually what finally prompted Dorcas to do the inevitable and visit with her mother to make her see the light. Now that their address was in Ministry files, the elder Meadowes were in immeasurable danger. There was no telling who already had their hands on this information.

Dorcas knocked on the door hesitantly, the only thing propelling her forward was the knowledge that she wouldn't survive losing her parents in addition to her sister.

Mrs. Meadowes opened the door a crack, and shock flew across her face.

"Dorcas." She murmured, as if unsure that her eyes weren't actually playing tricks on her. "Come on in."

Dorcas stepped cautiously across the threshold and into the house, not sure how exactly she was going to broach this topic with her mother.

"Mum, we need to talk." Dorcas stated carefully, and Mrs. Meadowes' eyes narrowed at the cryptic first sentence. Dorcas wasn't quite sure what would be a good way to say this, so just decided to come right out and say it. Even if it wasn't the best way it was the quickest.

"You and Dad need to leave London." Dorcas informed her, and Mrs. Meadowes gasped in disbelief. "It's not safe here anymore. The Death Eaters are running rampant and you're a target because of me."

"Dorcas I don't understand what you mean!" Mrs. Meadowes said, her voice clearly indicating that she was upset. "I don't see why we have to leave London! I have lived in this house most of my life, and so haven't you!"

"That doesn't matter Mum." Dorcas replied simply, trying to keep the coolness out of her voice. It wasn't her mum's fault that she didn't understand. She had always had a naïve view of the world. "London isn't safe anymore, especially not for us. As much as you must hate it, and I understand, you're a target because of me."

"Surely all of London isn't in danger." Her mother insisted, and Dorcas barely managed to keep from pulling her own hair out. "If all of London was in danger, the Ministry would be doing something about it! Dorcas, it's their job to do something about it! Plus, you wouldn't let anything happen to us. You will keep us safe."

Dorcas couldn't believe that that sentence had actually just come out of her mother's mouth. Didn't she realize that Dorcas hadn't kept Amber safe? Had the Ministry brainwashed her so much that she couldn't see the truth right in front of her? Couldn't she see that Dorcas was having a hard enough time protecting herself, never mind other people?

Unable to believe that she was that naïve, Dorcas looked at her mother for the first time since she had arrived at the house, horrified. She had kidded herself into believing that she could come here, her parents would come quietly, and she wouldn't have to look at her mother.

That was easily the worst part of this entire encounter. This was the first time since Amber's funeral that she had actually seen her mother. She had received letters, yes, but most of them had gone unread, and even if she had opened them, she didn't have to face her while she did it.

The honey blonde curls tumbled around her face and down her shoulders, and her round face had the same clear complexion as Amber. She had always looked remarkably like her youngest daughter. Dorcas bit the insides of her cheeks until she tasted blood, and still barely managed to keep herself from letting her tears spill over.

"Mom, we've been over this before." Dorcas replied, finally managing to break eye contact and regain at least some of her infamous composure. "What happened to her wasn't an accident, no matter what the Ministry told you. I was there. I would know."

Dorcas couldn't even bring herself to say _her _name.

"Well, I'm sorry Dorcas, but I'm not convinced." Mrs. Meadowes said haughtily. "You have been a right mess lately, and I'm not entirely sure that you are thinking clearly. You've always been a suspicious child, and after Amber's accident I think you just needed someone to blame. You haven't exactly been stable ever since the incident."

"I haven't been stable since the incident." Dorcas repeated, incredulous. "Am I supposed to be? Am I supposed to be stable after watching the _only _thing that actually mattered to me murdered and I couldn't save her? I'm sorry I don't get up every morning with a chipper smile on my face and pep in my step Mum, but it's ridiculous if you expect me to. I obviously don't live in the world you do, where you can pretend your youngest child just never existed."

The hurt flashed through her mother's eyes, and Dorcas waited for the pang of guilt she was certain was going to run through her for hurting her mother's feelings. Nothing came.

"You don't know the pain that I live in." Mrs. Meadowes responded quietly, tears pouring down her cheeks. "I hope you never understand the pain of losing your child."

"I honestly can't believe you even just said that." Dorcas replied, her tone cold. "If anyone knows the pain you live in Mother, it's me. Amber was never really yours. She was my everything. From the day she was born, anyone would tell you that little girl was _mine._"

"She was not yours!" Mrs. Meadowes yelled angrily. Dorcas couldn't help but feel envious of her mother. She could obviously still feel. "She may have loved you more Dorcas. You're right, anyone could see that. But that doesn't make my love for her any less real. And it certainly doesn't make her _yours._ I miss her just as much as you do Dor. I just obviously handle my grief better than you, because I am not coming up with crazy conspiracy theories for what happened to my youngest daughter."

Dorcas pushed hard off the wall and crossed the room fast, infuriated. She was honestly so angry she couldn't be certain what she was going to do, and thought it best to put as much distance as possible between herself and her mother. Her slight shoulders shook as she struggled to contain the rage bubbling inside of her. She was determined to make her mother see the light about Amber's death and the Ministry of Magic.

Striding across the room with a determined look on her face, Dorcas came to a halt inches away from her mother. Reaching down, she lifted her jumper and pointed to her abdomen.

Mrs. Meadowes' eyes became transfixed on the long, pink, puckered scar that stretched all the way across Dorcas' slim body. The barely healed gash covered the entire surface of her torso, disappearing up into Dorcas' bra and downwards into her trousers. She couldn't contain the gasp that slipped from her lips.

"Am I delusional Mum?" Dorcas demanded, but her mother couldn't pull her eyes away from the scar. "Did I give myself this scar Mum? Where do you think the _Ministry _would say this came from? I'll tell you where it came from. It came from a Death Eater who tried to kill me."

"This is nothing new Mum. They all want to kill me. And I am fine with this. But you need to recognize the truth, you need to see that by staying in this house all you are doing is making it easier for them to destroy me. They didn't hesitate from using Amber, and they won't hesitate before using you."

Mrs. Meadowes nodded mutely, still unable to tear her eyes away from the scar. It was fresh. It was deep. And it was obviously caused by Dark Magic.

"Don't help them destroy me Mum."

Snapping back to reality, Mrs. Meadowes looked her daughter in the eye as she let her fingers trail carefully along the line of the scar.

"I believe you."

"Thank you." Dorcas whispered. Her mother had only said 3 simple words, but the relief that flooded out of Dorcas was practically palpable. "I'm going to avenge her you know. The people who did this are going to pay. I've already taken down 4 of their people."

"But Dorcas, aren't you angering them?" Mrs. Meadowes asked worriedly. "From everything you've told me, they seem like dangerous people."

"They are dangerous Mum, but I don't care. I don't care how much it pisses them off either. I will not stop until every single one of them are dead."

"But what if they kill _you_!" Mrs. Meadowes demanded, and Dorcas merely shrugged her shoulders. "You're making them angry, as if your number one goal is for them to kill you. You're only one person Dorcas, it is nearly impossible that you kill them all!"

"I know." Dorcas had reached the point of simple answers. She didn't want to worry her mother, but she wasn't going to lie to her either. Sooner or later, she would know that Dorcas was playing with fire.

"So basically you're going to try to kill them all, and they're going to try to kill you." Dorcas' mother was shaking at this point. "You do realize that if you fail you are going to end up dead right? That you are probably going to fail? That you are going to end up dead?"

Dorcas barely even thought about the repercussions her response was going to have. She merely smiled ruefully at the woman in front of her.

"Would that be so tragic?"

It might be a little strange, but Dorcas loved the dark.

So many people hated the dark because you never knew what was going on around you. To Dorcas, that was the absolute best part of it all. She loved sitting in the dark, because if she didn't have to see what was going on around her, she had more time to think.

She was currently sitting in an unfamiliar house, trying to come up with a strategy for how to get her revenge. It was more difficult than it sounded. None of the plans that she came up with seemed to be proper retribution for the suffering that the Death Eaters had caused.

Dorcas put her head in her hands and took some deep breaths. Sometimes, the grief she felt was still overwhelming. She thought about Amber every moment of every day, she just couldn't help it. Her sister's death was something that she would never recover from.

She hadn't spoken to a single other human being in over a week, and she wasn't even lonely. She could feel herself sliding slowly into the dark recesses of her own mind, but she wasn't able to stop. And she wasn't sure she wanted to.

At moments like this, Dorcas found it worked best if she focused her thoughts and reminded herself of what exactly she had to avenge. Moving quietly across the room, she approached the small suitcase that contained every personal belonging she had.

She flipped the lid open and muttered "Lumos" under her breath so she could see properly.

And just like always, she gasped when the pain hit her.

Decorating the top of her suitcase was what could essentially be considered a shrine to Amber. Pictures covered every bit of it, both muggle and wizarding.

Tears welling in her eyes, Dorcas gently grabbed the picture of her holding Amber in the hospital. The baby was just so small and fast asleep. A small tuft of blonde curls decorated the top of her head, and Dorcas was running her fingers through it. She couldn't help but wish that this photograph was a wizarding one, but it wasn't. She would have given anything to see the gentle rise and fall of Amber's chest.

Carefully placing that photo back in its place, Dorcas pulled down the wizarding picture of Amber on her first day of school. She was beaming and waving at the camera, and every once in a while she would blow a kiss. This was easily Dorcas' most treasured picture, and it was easy to tell. The edges were starting to fade and fray, and every once in a while the image would stutter.

This was what Dorcas was fighting for. Her sister had to be avenged, and she had to be the only one involved in doing it. Nobody else was going to get hurt in this.

She frowned at the photograph in her hand. She would do anything to turn back the time, to never take Amber to that lunch, to kill the first Death Eater before he had the chance to call in reinforcements.

To take the curse that was meant for her.

Dorcas knew that this wasn't a possibility, but that didn't mean that she had to like it. Every morning that she woke up promised only a new day of torture, a day of pain. She only knew how to do one thing.

She was going to make the people who did this to her sister live in the same hell she did.

Dorcas edged carefully around the perimeter of the forest, knowing that she couldn't get too close. If anyone knew she was here, her plan would be ruined before it even really started. That would be unacceptable.

Lestrange Manor stood in front of her, the massive building cold but dignified. It was beautiful in a terrifying sort of way. Dorcas couldn't help but think that it suited its mistress perfectly.

Shaking her head angrily, she couldn't believe that this was the best plan she had been able to come up with. One challenge of destroying the life of someone who cares about nothing and no one is finding something to take away from them.

So there Dorcas stood, determined to burn Lestrange Manor right down to the ground. She could only hope that Bellatrix was inside, but knew it was unlikely. She also knew that it was unlikely that this house held any sentimental significance to Bellatrix.

What she was entirely confident of though, was that if nothing else, it would positively enrage Bellatrix that Dorcas had the nerve to destroy something of hers.

So, standing just outside the Lestrange property so as to not draw any attention to herself, Dorcas cast the anti-apparition wards that she had been practicing for days, ever since she came up with this plan.

The hard part had been putting in her own special loophole that allowed house elves to apparate off the property unaccompanied. Dorcas may be looking to destroy everything associated with Voldemort, but she wasn't into killing innocents.

She couldn't care less, however, how much Death Eater blood was spilled.

With her wards now in place, Dorcas prepared to do exactly what she came here to do. She stepped onto the property surrounding the manor, confident that with her wards, even if her presence was detected, at this point no one would be interrupting her until her job was done.

She aimed her wand carefully at a window directly in the middle of the manor and cast a charm so strong that when that window shattered into a million pieces, so didn't all of the others within 10 feet of it. She smiled to herself.

It took only a moment for a freezing cold breeze to blow across the property. Dorcas' grin grew. As the wind blew through the open window, it unintentionally blew a curtain directly into Dorcas' line of sight.

With accuracy Mad Eye would be proud of and nobody in the Ministry but him could mirror, Dorcas set the curtain on fire. Satisfaction flooded her with her success, and she gained in confidence.

Dorcas stalked around the entire property, lighting anything she could see on fire. She felt a rush every time something new went up in flames, each step she took taking Lestrange Manor one bit closer to the point of no return.

Within minutes, there was nothing left for Dorcas to ignite, The entire building was burning rather rapidly to the ground.

The flames licking up the side of the building were so strong Dorcas could feel the heat even from her position at the edge of the property. It was oddly satisfying to her, watching something that belonged to Death Eaters slowly being destroyed.

They may have destroyed her whole world in a few seconds, but she planned on savoring doing the same to theirs.

Dorcas knew that she had to leave soon. Her anti-apparition wards may have prevented anybody showing up while she was still igniting the entire house, but it wouldn't keep them away much longer. By now someone would have had almost enough time to apparate just outside the wards and get to the property on foot.

And as much as she would love the opportunity to take down another Death Eater, she was relatively confident there wouldn't just be one. And she couldn't let them catch her yet, her work wasn't finished.

With one final glimpse at the burning building, Dorcas reached deep into the pocket of her robes and pulled out a scrap of parchment. Carefully, she placed it on the ground. Almost having forgotten, Dorcas reached into the pocket of her robes once more and pulled out a heavy silver dagger. She placed it carefully on top of the parchment, weighing it down so it wouldn't blow away. She wanted Bellatrix to find the letter.

Unable to resist the temptation, Dorcas bent over and picked the letter up to read it one last time. Even as she read the words, she knew she wouldn't have had to read it again to remember what it said. The words were burned into the back of her head.

_Bella, _

_I know how much you like to leave letters behind, and I wouldn't want you to think I wasn't receiving them. I got your messages just as I'm sure you're going to get mine._

_I do believe this dagger used to be yours. Didn't the Ministry confiscate it on a Dark Magic raid a few months back? They took all the curses off of it (ruining all the fun), but I still thought you might like it back. Now you can practice your muggle fighting a bit more._

_It's a real tragedy what happened to your manor. I just happened to be walking by when I saw the flames, and wanted to be certain I left my condolences. We should all just be grateful you weren't inside, no? _

_I'm looking forward to seeing you soon Bella. I'm certain we have much to talk about._

_Yours, _

_Dorcas_

With a smirk, Dorcas placed the letter back on the ground, the silver dagger again taking its place right on top of it.

Quickly, certain that she now had absolutely no time before the arrival of some very angry Death Eaters, Dorcas grabbed her wand and focused on the house she was hiding in now.

The scream of rage that filled her ears just before she disappeared would be her lullaby that evening.

**A/N: Hello!**

**So, I think that this story is killing me. I've been having so much difficulty with it lately, but I fought my way through to finish this chapter. The closer we get to the end (and we're getting CLOSE) the harder it is. **

**Please leave me a review and tell me what you think!**

**~Cassie**


End file.
